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CARICATURE 

AND 

OTHER  COMIC  ART 


IN  ALL  TIMES  AND  MANY  LANDS 


By  JAMES  BARTON 


WITH  SOS  ILLUSTRATIONS 


NEW  YOEK 

HARPER  & BROTHERS,  PUBLISHERS 

FRANKLIN  SQUARE 

1878 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1877,  by 
HARPER  & BROTHERS, 

In  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  at  Washington. 


PREFACE. 


this  volume  there  is,  I believe,  a greater  variety  of  pictures  of  a comic  and 

satirical  cast  than  was  ever  before  presented  at  one  view.  Many  nations, 
ancient  and  modern,  pagan  and  Christian,  are  represented  in  it,  as  well  as  most 
of  the  names  identified  with  art  of  this  nature.  The  extraordinary  liberality 
of  the  publishers,  and  the  skill  of  their  corps  of  engravers,  have  seconded  my 
own  industrious  reseai’ches,  and  the  result  is  a volume  unique,  at  least,  in  the 
character  of  its  illustrations.  A large  portion  of  its  contents  appeared  in  Har- 
per’s  Monthly  Magazine  during  the  year  18Y5;  but  many  of  the  most  curious 
and  interesting  of  the  pictures  are  given  here  for  the  first  time ; notably,  those 
exhibiting  the  present  or  recent  caricature  of  Germany,  Spain,  Italy,  China,  and 
Japan,  several  of  which  did  not  arrive  in  time  for  use  in  the  periodical. 

Generally  speaking,  articles  contributed  to  a Magazine  may  as  well  be  left 
in  their  natural  tomb  of  “ back  numbers,”  or  bound  volumes for  the  better 
they  serve  a temporary  purpose,  the  less  adapted  they  are  for  permanent  utili- 
ty. Among  the  exceptions  are  such  series  as  the  present,  which  had  no  refer- 
ence whatever  to  the  passing  months,  and  in  the  preparation  of  which  a great 
expenditure  was  directed  to  a single  class  of  objects  of  special  interest.  I am, 
indeed,  amazed  at  the  cost  of  producing  such  articles  as  these.  So  very  great 
is  the  expense,  that  many  subjects  could  not  be  adequately  treated,  with  all  de- 
sirable illustration,  unless  the  publishers  could  offer  the  work  to  the  public  in 
portions. 

There  is  not  much  to  be  said  upon  the  subject  treated  in  this  volume. 
When  I was  invited  by  the  learned  and  urbane  editor  of  Harper's  Monthly  to 
furnish  a number  of  articles  upon  caricature,  I supposed  that  the  work  pro- 
posed would  be  a relief  after  labors  too  arduous,  too  long  continued,  and  of  a 
more  serious  character.  On  the  contrary,  no  subject  that  I ever  attempted 
presented  such  baffling  difflculties.  After  ransacking  the  world  for  specimens. 


8 


PREFACE. 


and  colle-cting  them  by  the  hundred,  I found  that,  lusually,  a caricature  is  a 
thing  of  a moment,  and  that,  dying  as  soon  as  its  moment  has  passed,  it  loses 
all  power  to  interest,  instantly  and  forever.  I found,  too,  that  our  respectable 
ancestors  had  not  the  least  notion  of  what  we  call  decency.  When,  therefore, 
I had  laid  aside  from  the  mass  the  obsolete  and  the  improper,  there  were  not 
so  very  many  left,  and  most  of  those  told  their  own  story  so  plainly  that  no 
elucidation  was  necessary.  Instead  of  wearying  the  reader  with  a mere  de- 
scriptive catalogue,  I have  preferred  to  accompany  the. pictures  with  allusions 
to  contemporary  satire  other  than  pictorial. 

The  great  living  authorities  upon  this  branch  of  art  are  two  in  number — one 
English,  and  one  French — to  both  of  whom  I am  greatly  indebted.  The  En- 
glish author  is  Thomas  Wright,  M.A.,  F.S.A.,  etc.,  whose  ‘‘History  of  Carica- 
ture and  the  Grotesque  ” is  well  known  among  us,  as  well  as  his  more  recent 
volume  upon  the  incomparable  caricaturist  of  the  last  generation,  James  Gill- 
ray.  The  French  writer  is  M.  Jules  Champfleury,  author  of  a valuable  series 
of  volumes  reviewing  satiric  art  from  ancient  times  to  our  own  day,  with 
countless  illustrations.  No  one  has  treated  so  fully  or  so  well  as  he  the  carica- 
ture of  the  Greeks  and  Romans.  Many  years  ago,  M.  Champfleury  began  to 
illustrate  this  part  of  his  subject  in  the  Gazette  des  Beaux  ArtSj  and  his  con- 
tributions to  that  important  periodical  were  the  basis  of  his  subsequent  vol- 
umes. He  is  one  of  the  few  writers  on  comic  matters  who  have  avoided  the 
lapse  into  catalogue,  and  contrived  to  be  interesting. 

It  has  been  agreeable  to  me  to  observe  that  Americans  are  not  without  nat- 
ural aptitude  in  this  kind  of  art.  Our  generous  Franklin,  the  friend  of  Ho- 
garth, to  whom  the  dying  artist  wrote  his  last  letter,  replying  to  the  last  letter 
he  ever  received,  was  a capital  caricaturist,  and  used  his  skill  in  this  way,  as  he 
did  all  his  other  gifts  and  powers,  in  behalf  of  his  country  and  his  kind.  At 
the  present  time,  every  week’s  issue  of  the  illustrated  periodicals  exhibits  evi- 
dence of  the  skill,  as  well  as  the  patriotism  and  right  feeling,  of  the  humorous 
artists  of  the  United  States.  For  some  years  past,  caricature  has  been  a pow- 
er in  the  land,  and  a power  generally  on  the  right  side.  There  are  also  humor- 
ous artists  of  another  and  gentler  kind,  some  even  of  the  gentler  sex,  who  pre- 
sent to  us  scenes  which  surprise  us  all  into  smiles  and  good  temper  without 
having  in  them  any  lurking  sting  of  reproof.  These  domestic  humorists,  I 
trust,  will  continue  to  amuse  and  soften  us,  while  the  avenging  satirist  with 
dreadful  pencil  makes  mad  the  guilty,  and  appalls  the  free. 


PKEFACE. 


There  must  be  something  precious  in  caricature,  else  the  enemies  of  truth 
and  freedom  would  not  hate  it  as  they  do.  Some  of  the  worst  excesses  and 
perversions  of  satiric  art  are  due  to  that  very  hatred.  Persecuted  and  re- 
pressed, caricature  becomes  malign  and  perverse ; or,  being  excluded  from  le- 
gitimate subjects,  it  seems  as  if  it  were  compelled  to  ally  itself  to  vice.  We 
have  only  to  turn  from  a heap  of  French  albums  to  volumes  of  English  carica- 
ture to  have  a striking  evidence  of  the  truth,  that  the  repressive  system  re- 
presses good  and  develops  evil.  It  is  the  Censure  ” that  debauches  the 
comic  pencil;  it  is  freedom  that  makes  it  the  ally  of  good  conduct  and  sound 
politics.  In  free  countries  alone  it  has  scope  enough,  without  wandering  into 
paths  which  the  eternal  proprieties  forbid.  I am  sometimes  sanguine  enough 
to  think  that  the  pencil  of  the  satirist  will  at  last  render  war  impossible,  by 
bringing  vividly  home  to  all  genial  minds  the  ludicrous  absurdity  of  such  a 
method  of  arriving  at  truth.  Fancy  two  armies  “ in  presence.”  By  some  proc- 
ess yet  to  be  developed,  the  Kast  of  the  next  generation,  if  not  the  admirable 
Nast  of  this,  projects  upon  the  sky,  in  the  sight  of  the  belligerent  forces,  a 
PICTURE  exhibiting  the  enormous  comicality  of  their  attitude  and  purpose. 
They  all  see  the  point,  and  both  armies  break  up  in  laughter,  and  come  to- 
gether roaring  over  the  joke. 

In  the  hope  that  this  volume  may  contribute  something  to  the  amusement 
of  the  happy  at  festive  seasons,  and  to  the  instruction  of  the  curious  at  all 
times,  it  is  presented  to  the  consideration  of  the  public. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  I.  page 

Among  the  Romans 15 

CHAPTER  II. 

Among  the  Greeks 28 

CHAPTER  III. 

Among  the  Ancient  Egyptians 32 

CHAPTER  IV. 

Among  the  Hindoos 36 

CHAPTER  V. 

Religious  Caricature  in  the  Middle  Ages 40 

CHAPTER  VI. 

Secular  Caricature  in  the  Middle  Ages 50 

CHAPTER  VII. 

Caricatures  preceding  the  Reformation 64 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

Comic  Art  and  the  Reformation 76 

CHAPTER  IX. 

In  the  Puritan  Period 90 

CHAPTER  X. 

Later  Puritan  Caricature 105 

CHAPTER  XI. 

Preceding  Hogarth 120 

CHAPTER  XII. 

Hogarth  and  his  Time 133 

CHAPTER  XIII. 

English  Caricature  in  the  Revolutionary  Period 147 


12 


INDEX. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

Duking  the  Fkench  Revolution 159 

, CHAPTER  XV. 

Caricatures  of  Women  and  Matrimony 171 

CHAPTER  XVI. 

Among  the  Chinese 191 

CHAPTER  XVII. 

Comic  Art  in  Japan 198 

CHAPTER  XVIII. 

French  Caricature 208 

CHAPTER  XIX. 

Later  French  Caricature 230 

CHAPTER  XX. 

Comic  Art  in  Germany 242 

CHAPTER  XXI. 

Comic  Art  in  Spain 249 

CHAPTER  XXII. 

Italian  Caricature 257 

CHAPTER  XXIII. 

English  Caricature  of  the  Present  Century 267 

CHAPTER  XXIV. 

Comic  Art  in  ‘‘Punch” 284 

CHAPTER  XXV. 

Early  American  Caricature 300 

CHAPTER  XXVI. 

Later  American  Caricature.. 318 


INDEX. 


335 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS, 


PAGE 


Pigmy  Pugilists,  from  Pompeii 15 

Chalk  Drawing  by  Roman  Soldier  in  Pompeii 15 

Chalk  Caricature  on  a Wall  in  Pompeii 16 

Battle  between  Pigmies  and  Geese 17 

A Pigmy  Scene— from  Pompeii 18 

Vases  with  Pigmy  Designs 19 

A Grasshopper  driving  a Chariot 19 

From  an  Antique  Amethyst 19 

Flight  of  ^ueas  from  Troy 20 

Caricature  of  the  Flight  of  ^neas 20 

From  a Red  Jasper 21 

Roman  Masks,  Comic  and  Tragic 22 

Roman  Comic  Actor,  masked  for  Silenus 22 

Roman  Wall  Caricature  of  a Christian 25 

Burlesque  of  Jupiter’s  Wooing  of  Princess  Alcmena  29 

Greek  Caricature  of  the  Oracle  of  Apollo 30 

An  Egyptian  Caricature 32 

A Condemned  Soul,  Egyptian  Caricature 33 

Egyptian  Servants  conveying  Home  their  Masters 

from  a Carouse 33 

Too  Late  with  the  Basin 34 

The  Hindoo  God  Krishna  on  his  Travels 37 

Krishna’s  Attendants  assuming  the  Form  of  a Bird  37 

Krishna  in  his  Palanquin 38 

Capital  in  the  Autun  Cathedral 41 

Capitals  in  the  Strasburg  Cathedral,  a.i>.  1300 41 

Engraved  upon  a Stall  in  Sherborne  Minster,  En- 
gland  43 

From  a Manuscript  of  the  Thirteenth  Century 43 

From  a Mass-book  of  the  Fourteenth  Century 44 

From  a French  Prayer-book  of  the  Thirteenth 

Century 45 

From  Queen  Mary’s  Prayer-book,  a.d.  1553 46 

Gog  and  Magog,  Guildhall,  London 50 

Head  of  the  Great  Dragon  of  Norwich 51 

Souls  weighed  in  the  Balance,  Autun  Cathedral. ...  51 
Struggle  for  Possession  of  a Soul  between  Angel 

and  Devil 52 

Lost  Souls  cast  into  Hell 53 

Devils  seizing  their  Prey 54 

The  Temptation 55 

French  Death-crier 56 

Death  and  the  Cripple 57 

Death  and  the  Old  Man 58 

Death  and  the  Peddler 58 

Death  and  the  Knight 58 

Heaven  and  Earth  weighed  in  the  Balance 60 

English  Caricature  of  an  Irishman,  a.d.  1280 62 

Caricature  of  the  Jews  in  England,  a.d.  1233 63 

Luther  inspired  by  Satan 64 

Devil  fiddling  upon  a Pair  of  Bellows 65 

Oldest  Drawing  in  the  British  Museum,  a.d.  1320. . 66 

Bishop’s  Seal,  a.d.  1300 67 

Pastor  and  Flock,  Sixteenth  Century 70 

Confessing  to  God ; and  Sale  of  Indulgences 72 

Christ,  the  True  Light 73 


PAGE 

Papa,  Doctor  Theologise  et  Magister  Fidei 77 

The  Pope  cast  into  Hell 77 

“The  Beam  that  is  in  thine  own  Eye,”  a.d.  1540.  .*.  78 

Luther  Triumphant 79 

The  Triumph  of  Riches 81 

Calvin  branded 83 

Calvin  at  the  Burning  of  Servetus 84 

Calvin,  the  Pope,  and  Luther 85 

Titian’s  Caricature  of  the  Laocoou 89 

The  Papal  Gorgon 90 

Spayne  and  Rome  defeated 94 

From  Title-page  to  Sermon  “Woe  to  Drunkards”.  97 
“Let  not  the  World  devide  those  whom  Christ  hath 

joined” 99 

“ England’s  Wolfe  with  Eagle’s  Clawes,”  1647 102 

Charles  II.  and  the  Scotch  Presbyterians,  1651 — 103 

Cris-cross  Rhymes  on  Love’s  Crosses,  1640 105 

Shrove-tide  in  Arms  against  Lent 107 

Lent  tilting  at  Shrove-tide 108 

The  Queen  of  James  II.  and  Father  Petre 109 

Caricature  of  Corpulent  General  Galas 115 

A Quaker  Meeting,  1710 116 

Archbishop  of  Paris 118 

Archbishop  of  Rheims 118 

Caricature  of  Louis  XIV.,  by  Thackeray 119 

“Shares!  Shares!  Shares!”  Caricature  of  John 

Law 120 

Island  of  Madhead 122 

Speculative  Map  of  Louisiana 126 

John  Law,  Wind  Monopolist 129 

The  Sleeping  Congregation 134 

Hogarth’s  Drawing  in  Three  Strokes 137 

Hogarth's  Invitation  Card 137 

Time  Smoking  a Picture 138 

Dedication  of  a Proposed  History  of  the  Arts. ....  140 

Walpole  paring  the  Nails  of  the  British  Lion 142 

Dutch  Neutrality,  1745 142 

British  Idolatry  of  the  Opera-singer  Mingotti 143 

The  Motion  (for  the  Removal  of  Walpole) 144 

Antiquaries  puzzled 146 

Caricature  designed  by  Benjamin  Franklin 147 

Lord  Bute 152 

Princess  of  Wales — Bute— George  III 152 

The  Wire-master  (Bute)  and  his  Puppets 153 

The  Gouty  Colossus,  William  Pitt , 156 

The  Mask  (Coalition) 157 

Heads  of  Pox  and  North 158 

Assembly  of  the  Notables  at  Paris 161 

Mirabeau 162 

The  Dagger  Scene  in  the  House  of  Commons 164 

The  Zenith  of  French  Glory 165 

The  Estates 166 

The  New  Calvary 166 

President  of  Revolutionary  Committee  amusing 

himself  with  his  Art 163 

Rare  Animals 169 


14 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


Aristocrat  and  Democrat 170 

“ You  frank ! Have  confidence  in  you  /" 171 

Matrimony— A Man  loaded  with  Mischief 173 

Settling  the  Odd  Trick 174 

“Who  was  that  gentleman  that  just  went  out?”..  176 
“Now,  Understand  me.  To-morrow  morning  he 

will  ask  you  to  dinner  ” 177 

“Madame,  your  Cousin  Betty  wishes  to  know  if 

you  can  receive  her  ” 179 

A Scene  of  Conjugal  Life 180 

A Splendid  Spread 181 

American  Lady  walking  in  the  Snow 183 

“My  dear  Baron,  I am  in  the  most  pressing  need 

of  five  hundred  franc  ” 184 

“ Sir,  be  good  enough  to  come  round  in  front  and 

speak  to  me  ” 185 

“ Where  are  the  diamonds  exhibited?” 185 

Evening  Scene  in  the  Parlor  of  an  American 

Boarding-house 186 

“ He’s  coming ! Take  off  your  hat !” 188 

The  Scholastic  Hen  and  her  Chickens 189 

Chinese  Caricature  of  an  English  Foraging  Party.  191 

A Deaf  Mandarin 196 

After  Dinner.  A Chinese  Caricature 197 

The  Eat  Kice  Merchants.  A Japanese  Carica- 
ture  206 

Talleyrand— the  Man  with  Six  Heads, 209 

A Great  Man’s  Last  Leap 210 

Talleyrand 211 

A Promenade  in  the  Palais  Koyal 213 

Family  of  the  Extinguishers 214 

The  Jesuits  at  Court 215 

Charles  Philipon 218 

Robert  Macaire  fishing  for  Share-holders, 221 

A Husband’s  Dilemma 223 

Housekeeping 224 

A Poultice  for  Two 226 

Parisian  “ Shoo,  Fly  !” 227 

Three! 228 

Two  Attitudes 230 

The  Den  of  Lions  at  the  Opera 231 

The  Vulture 233 

Partant  pour  la  Syrie 234 

Gavarni 236 

Honore  Daumier 237 

Evolution  of  the  Piano 243 

A Corporal  interviewed  by  the  Major 244 

A Bold  Comparison 245 

Strict  Discipline  in  the  Field. 246 

Ahead  of  Time 247 

A Journeyman’s  Leave-taking 248 

After  Sedan 250 

To  the  Bull-fight 251 


PAGE 

A Delegation  of  Birds  of  Prey. 252 

“Child,  you  will  take  cold” 253 

Inconvenience  of  the  New  Collar 254 

Sufferings  endured  by  a Prisoner  of  War.  255 

King  Bomba’s  Ultimatum  to  Sicily 259 

He  has  begun  the  Service  with  Mass,  and  com- 
pleted it  with  Bombs 260 

The  Burial  of  Liberty 261 

Bomba  at  Supper 262 

“ Such  is  the  Love  of  Kings  ” 263 

Mr.  Punch 264 

Return  of  the  Pope  to  Rome 265 

James  Gillray 267 

Tiddy-Doll,  the  Great  French  Gingerbread  Baker.  268 

The  Threatened  Invasion  of  England 269 

The  Bibliomaniac 270 

Hope— A Phrenological  Illustration 271 

Term  Time 273 

Box  in  a New  York  Theatre  in  1830 276 

Seymour’s  Conception  of  Mr.  Winkle 278 

Probable  Suggestion  of  the  Fat  Boy 280 

A Wedding  Breakfast 281 

The  Boy  who  chalked  up  “No  Popery !” 284 

John  Leech 285 

Preparatory  School  for  Young  Ladies 286 

The  Quarrel.— England  and  France 287 

Obstructives 290 

Jeddo  and  Belfast;  or,  a Puzzle  for  Japan 291 

“At  the  Church-gate” 292 

An  Early  Quibble 294 

John  Tenniel 295 

Soliloquy  of  a Rationalistic  Chicken 298 

“ I’ll  follow  thee  I” 299 

Join  or  Die 304 

Boston  Massacre  Coffins 306 

A Militia  Drill  in  Massachusetts  in  1832 308 

Fight  in  Congress  between  Lyon  and  Griswold. . . 312 

The  Gerry-mander 316 

Thomas  Nast 318 

Wholesale  and  Retail 319 

The  Brains  of  the  Tammany  Ring 320 

“What  are  the  wild  waves  saying?” 321 

Shin-plaster  Caricature  of  General  Jackson’s  War 

on  the  United  States  Bank 322 

City  People  in  a Country  Church 323 

“Why  don’t  you  take  it?” 324 

Popular  Caricature  of  the  Secession  War 325 

Virginia  pausing 326 

Tweedledee  and  Sweedledum 328 

“Who  Stole  the  People’s  Money?” 329 

“On  to  Richmond  !” 330 

Christmas-time. — Won  at  a Turkey  Raffle 331 

“ He  cometh  not,  she  said” 332 


Pigmy  Pugilists — from  Pompeii, 

CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


CHAPTER  I. 

AMONG  THE  ROMANS. 


Much  as  the  ancients  differed  from  ourselves  in  other  particulars,  they  cer- 
tainly laughed  at  one  another  just  as  we  do,  for  precisely  the  same  rea- 
sons, and  employed  every  art,  device,  and  implement  of 
ridicule  which  is  known  to  us. 

Observe  this  rude  and  childish  attempt  at  a drawing. 
Go  into  any  boys’  school  to-day,  and  turn  over  the  slates 
and  copy-books,  or  visit  an  inclosure  where  men  are 
obliged  to  pass  idle  days,  and  you  will  be  likely  to  find 
pictures  conceived  in  this  taste,  and  executed  with  this 
degree  of  artistic  skill.  But  the  drawing  dates  back  nearly 
eighteen  centuries.  It  was  done  on  one  of  the  hot,  languid 
days  of  August,  a.d.  79,  by  a Roman  soldier  with  a piece  of 
red  chalk  on  a wall  of  his  barracks  in  the  city  of  Pompeii.* 
On  the  23d  of  August,  in  the  year  79,  occurred  the  eruption 
of  Vesuvius,  which  buried  not  Italian  cities  only,  but  Antiq- 
uity itself,  and,  by  burying,  preserved  it  for  the  instruction  of  after-times.  In 
disinterred  Pompeii,  the  Past  stands  revealed  to  us,  and  we  remark  with  a kind 


* “Naples  and  the  Canipagna  Felice.”  In  a Series  of  Letters  addressed  to  a Friend  in  En- 
gland, in  1802,  p.  104. 


16 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


of  infantile  surprise  the  great  number  of  particulars  in  which  the  people  of 
that  day  were  even  such  as  we  are.  There  was  found  the  familiar  apothecary’s 
shop,  with  a box  of  pills  on  the  counter,  and  a roll  of  material  that  was  about 
to  be  made  up  when  the  apothecary  heard  the  warning  thunder  and  fled.  The 
baker’s  shop  remained,  with  a loaf  of  bread  stamped  with  the  maker’s  name. 
A sculptor’s  studio  was  strewed  with  blocks  of  marble,  unfinished  statues,  mal- 
lets, compasses,  chisels,  and  saws.  A thousand  objects  attest  that  when  the 
fatal  eruption  burst  upon  these  cities,  life  and  its  activities  were  going  forward 
in  all  essential  particulars  as  they  are  at  this  moment  in  any  rich  and  luxurious 
town  of  Southern  Europe. 

In  the  building  supposed  to  have  been  the  quarters  of  the  Roman  garrison, 
many  of  the  walls  were  covered  with  such  attempts  at  caricature  as  the  speci- 
men just  given,  to  some  of  which  were  appended  opprobrious  epithets  and 
phrases.  The  name  of  the  personage  above  portrayed  was  Nonius  Maximus, 
who  was  probably  a martinet  centurion,  odious  to  his  company,  for  the  name 
was  found  in  various  parts  of  the  inclosure,  usually  accompanied  by  dispara- 
ging words.  Many  of  the  soldiers  had  simply  chalked  their  own  names;  others 
had  added  the  number  of  their  cohort  or  legion,  precisely  as  in  the  late  war 
soldiers  left  records  of  their  stay  on  the  walls  of  fort  and  hospital.  A large 
number  of  these  wall-chalkings  in  red,  white,  and  black  (most  of  them  in  red) 


CUALK  CaRIOATUKE  ON  A WaLE  IN  PoMPEII. 


were  clearly  legible  fifty  years  after  exposure.  I give  another  specimen,  a gen- 
uine political  caricature,  copied  from  an  outside  wall  of  a private  house  in 
Pompeii. 

The  allusion  is  to  an  occurrence  in  local  history  of  the  liveliest  possible  in- 
terest to  the  people.  A few  years  before  the  fatal  eruption  there  was  a fierce 
town-and-country  row  in  the  amphitheatre,  in  which  the  Pompeians  defeated  and 


AMONG  THE  KOMANS. 


17 


put  to  flight  the  provincial  Nucerians.  Nero  condemned  the  pugnacious  men 
of  Pompeii  to  the  terrible  penalty  of  closing  their  amphitheatre  for  ten  years. 
In  the  picture  an  armed  man  descends  into  the  arena  bearing  the  palm  of  vic- 
tory, while  on  the  other  side  a prisoner  is  dragged  away  bound.  The  inscrip- 
tion alone  gives  us  the  key  to  the  street  artist’s  meaning,  Campani  victoria 
una  cum  Nucerinis  peristis — “Men  of  Campania,  you  perished  in  tlie  victory 
not  less  than  the  Nucerians;”  as  though  the  patriotic  son  of  Campania  had 
written,  “ We  beat  ’em,  but  very  little  we  got  by  it.” 

If  the  idlers  of  the  streets  chalked  caricature  on  the  walls,  we  can  not  be 
surprised  to  discover  that  Pompeian  artists  delighted  in  the  comic  and  bur- 
lesque. Comic  scenes  from  the  plays  of  Terence  and  Plautus,  with  the  names 
of  the  characters  written  over  them,  have  been  found,  as  well  as  a large  num- 
ber of  burlesque  scenes,  in  which  dwarfs,  deformed  people.  Pigmies,  beasts,  and 
birds  are  engaged  in  the  ordinary  labors  of  men.  The  gay  and  luxurious  peo- 
ple of  the  buried  cities  seem  to  have  delighted  in  nothing  so  much  as  in  repre- 
sentations of  Pigmies,  for  there  was  scarcely  a house  in  Pompeii  yet  uncovered 
which  did  not  exhibit  some  trace  of  the  ancient  belief  in  the  existence  of  these 
little  people.  Homer,  Aristotle,  and  Pliny  all  discourse  of  the  Pigmies  as  act- 
ually existing,  and  the  artists,  availing  themselves  of  this  belief,  which  they 
shared,  employed  it  in  a hundred  ways  to  caricature  the  doings  of  men  of 
larger  growth.  Pliny  describes  them  as  inhabiting  the  salubrious  mountain- 
ous regions  of  India,  their  stature  about  twenty-seven  inches,  and  engaged  in 
eternal  war  with  their  enemies,  the  geese.  “They  say,”  Pliny  continues,  “that. 


mounted  upon  rams  and  goats,  and  armed  with  bows  and  arrows,  they  descend 
in  a body  during  spring-time  to  the  edge  of  the  waters,  where  they  eat  the  eggs 
and  the  young  of  those  birds,  not  returning  to  the  mountains  for  three  months. 
Otherwise  they  could  not  resist  the  ever-increasing  multitude  of  the  geese. 
The  Pigmies  live  in  cabins  made  of  mud,  the  shells  of  goose  eggs,  and  feathers 
of  the  same  bird.” 

Homer,  in  the  third  book  of  the  “ Iliad,”  alludes  to  the  wars  of  the 
Cranes  and  Pigmies  : 

“So  when  inclement  winters  vex  the  plnin 
With  piercing  fi’osts,  or  thick-descending  rain, 

2 


18 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


To  warmer  seas  the  Cranes  embodied  fly, 

With  noise  and  order  through  the  midway  sky; 

To  Pigmy  nations  wounds  and  death  they  bring, 

And  all  the  war  descends  upon  the  wing.” 

One  of  our  engravings  sliows  that  not  India  only,  but  Egypt  also,  was  re- 
garded as  the  haunt  of 
the  Pigmy  race;  for  the 
Upper  Nile  was  then,  as 
now,  the  home  of  the  hip- 
popotamus, the  crocodile, 
and  the  lotus.  Here  we 
see  a bald-headed  Pigmy 
hero  riding  triumphantly 
on  a mighty  crocodile, 
regardless  of  the  open- 
mouthed,  bellowing  hip- 
popotamus behind  him. 
In  other  pictures,  howev- 
er, the  scaly  monster,  so 
far  from  playing  this  sub- 
missive part,  is  seen  plung- 
ing in  fierce  pursuit  of  a 
Pigmy,  who  flies  headlong 
before  the  foe.  Frescoes, 
vases,  mosaics,  statuettes, 
paintings,  and  signet-rings 
found  in  the  ancient  cit- 
ies all  attest  the  populari- 
ty of  the  little  men.  The 
odd  pair  of  vases  on  the 
following  page,  one  in  the 
shape  of  a boar’s  head 
and  the  other  in  that  of 

A Pigmy  Scene — fuom  Pumpeii.  , i i ^ 

a ram  s,  are  both  adorned 

with  a representation  of  the  fierce  combats  between  the  Pigmies  and  the  geese. 

There  has  been  an  extraordinary  display  of  erudition  in  the  attempt  to  ac- 
count for  the  endless  repetition  of  Pigmy  subjects  in  the  houses  of  the  Pom- 
peians; but  the  learned  and  acute  M.  Champfleury  “humbly  hazards  a con- 
jecture,” as  he  modestly  expresses  it,  which  commends  itself  at  once  to  general 
acceptance.  He  thinks  these  Pigmy  pictures  were  designed  to  amuse  the  chil- 
dren. No  conjecture  could  be  less  erudite  or  more  probable.  We  know, 
however,  as  a matter  of  record,  that  the  walls  of  taverns  and  wine-shops  were 
usually  adorned  with  Pigmy  pictures,  such  subjects  being  associated  in  every 


AMONG  THE  ROMANS. 


19 


mind  with  pleasure  and  gayety.  It  is  not  difficult  to  imagine  that  a picture 
of  a pugilistic  encounter  between  Pig- 
mies, like  the  one  given  at  the  head  of 
this  chapter,  or  a fanciful  representa- 
tion of  a combat  of  Pigmy  gladiators, 
of  which  many  have  been  discovered, 
would  be  both  welcome  and  suitable 
as  tavern  pictures  in  the  Italian  cities 
of  the  classic  period. 

The  Pompeians,  in  common  with 
all  the  people  of  antiquity,  had  a child- 
like enjoyment  in  witnessing  represen- 
tations of  animals  engaged  in  the  la- 
bors or  the  sports  of  human  beings. 

A very  large  number  of  specimens 
have  been  uncovered,  some  of  them 
gorgeous  with  the  hues  given  them  by 
masters  of  coloring  eighteen  hundred 
years  ago.  In  the  following  cut  is  a 

. n . . Vases  with  Pigmy  Designs. 

specimen  oi  these  — a representation 

of  a grasshopper  driving  a chariot,  copied  in  1802  from  a Pompeian  work  for 
an  English  traveler. 

Nothing  can  exceed  either  the  brilliancy  or  the  delicacy  of  the  coloring  of 

this  picture  in  the  original, 
the  splendid  plumage  of  the 
bird  and  the  bright  gold  of 
the  chariot  shaft  and  wheel 
being  relieved  and  heighten- 
ed by  a gray  background 
and  the  greenish  brown  of 
the  course.  The  colorists  of 
Pompeii  have  obviously  in- 
fluenced the  taste  of  Christendom.  There  are  few  houses  of  pretension  dec- 
orated within  the  last  quarter  of  a century, 
either  in  Europe  or  America,  which  do  not  ex- 
hibit combinations  and  contrasts  of  color  of 
which  the  hint  was  found  in  exhumed  Pom- 
peii. One  or  two  other  small  specimens  of 
this  kind  of  art,  selected  from  a large  number 
accessible,  may  interest  the  reader. 

The  spirited  air  of  the  team  of  cocks,  and 
the  nonchalant  professional  attitude  of  the  From  an  Antique  Amethyst. 
charioteer,  will  not  escape  notice.  Perhaps  the  most  interesting  example  of 


A Grasshopper  driving  a Chariot. 


20 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


this  propensity  to  personify  animals 
which  the  exhumed  cities  have  fur- 
nished us  is  a burlesque  of  a popular 
picture  of  ^neas  escaping  from  Troy, 
carrying  his  father,  Anchises,  on  his 
back,  and  leading  by  the  hand  his  son^ 
Ascanius,  the  old  man  carrying  the 
casket  of  household  gods.  No  scene 
could  have  been  more  familiar  to  the 
people  of  Italy  than  one  which  exhib- 
ited the  hero  whom  they  regarded  as 
the  founder  of  their  empire  in  so  enga- 
ging a light,  and  to  which  the  genius 
of  Virgil  had  given  a deathless  charm  : 

“Thus  ord’ring all  that  prudence  could  provide 
I clothe  my  shoulders  with  a lion’s  hide 
And  yellow  spoils ; then  on  my  bejiding  back 
The  welcome  load  of  my  dear  father  take  ; 
While  on  my  better  hand  Ascanius  hung, 
And  with  unequal  paces  tripped  along.” 


Artists  found  a subject  in  these 
lines,  and  of  one  picture  suggested  by 
them  two  copies  have  been  found 
carved  upon  stone. 


I 


Flight  of  .iEneas  from  Troy. 


This  device  of  employing  animals’ 
heads  upon  human  bodies  is  still  used 
by  the  caricaturist,  so  few  are  the  re- 
sources of  his  branch  of  art;  and  we 
can  not  deny  that  it  retains  a portion 
of  its  power  to  excite  laughter.  If  we 
may  judge  from  what  has  been  discov- 
ered of  the  burlesque  art  of  the  ancient 
nations,  we  may  conclude  that  this 
idea,  poor  as  it  seems  to  us,  was  the 
one  which  the  artists  of  antiquity  most 
frequently  employed.  It  was  also  com- 
mon with  them  to  burlesque  familiar 
paintings,  as  in  the  instance  given.  It 
is  not  unlikely  that  the  cloyed  and 
dainty  taste  of  the  Pompeian  connois- 
seur perceived  something  ridiculous 
in  the  too -familiar  exploit  of  Father 
^neas  as  represented  in  serious  art. 


Caricature  of  tue  Flight  of  j^Eneas. 


AMONG  THE  ROMANS. 


21 


just  as  we  smile  at  the  theatrical  attitudes  and  costumes  in  the  picture  of 
‘‘Washington  crossing  the  Delaware.”  Fancy  that  work  burlesqued  by  put- 
ting an  eagle’s  head  upon  the  Father  of  his  Country,  filling  the  boat  with 
magpie  soldiers,  covering  the  river  with  icebergs,  and  making  the  oars  still 
more  ludicrously  inadequate  to  the  work  in  hand  than  they  are  in  tlie  paint- 
ing. Thus  a caricaturist  of  Pompeii,  Rome,  Greece,  Egypt,  or  Assyria  would 
have  endeavored  to  cast  ridicule  upon  such  a picture. 

Few  events  of  the  last  century  were  more  infiuential  upon  the  progress  of 
knowledge  than  the  chance  discovery  of  the 
buried  cities,  since  it  nourished  a curiosity  re- 
specting the  past  which  could  not  be  confined 
to  those  excavations,  and  which  has  since  been 
disclosing  antiquity  in  every  quarter  of  the 
globe.  We  call  it  a chance  discovery,  although 
the  part  which  accident  plays  in  such  matters 
is  more  interesting  than  important.  The  dig- 
ging of  a well  in  1708  let  daylight  into  the 

” ® ® Fuom  a Red  Jasper. 

amphitheatre  of  Herculaneum,  and  caused 

some  languid  exploration,  which  had  small  results.  Forty  years  later,  a 
peasant  at  work  in  a vineyard  five  miles  from  the  same  spot  struck  with 
his  hoe  something  hard,  which  was  too  firmly  fixed  in  the  ground  to  be 
moved.  It  proved  to  be  a small  statue  of  metal,  upright,  and  riveted  to 
a stone  pedestal,  which  was  itself  immovably  fastened  to  some  solid  mass 
still  deeper  in  the  earth.  Where  the  hoe  had  struck  the  statue  the  metal 
showed  the  tempting  hue  of  gold,  and  the  peasant,  after  carefully  smooth- 
ing over  the  surface,  hurried  away  with  a fragment  of  it  to  a goldsmith, 
intending  (so  runs  the  local  gossip)  to  work  this  opening  as  his  private 
gold  mine.  But  as  the  metal  was  pronounced  brass,  he  honestly  reported 
the  discovery  to  a magistrate,  who  set  on  foot  an  excavation.  The  statue 
was  found  to  be  a Minerva,  fixed  to  the  centre  of  a small  roof-like  dome, 
and  when  the  dome  was  broken  through  it  was  seen  to  be  the  roof  of  a tem- 
ple, of  which  the  Minerva  had  been  the  topmost  ornament.  And  thus  was 
discovered,  about  the  middle  of  the  last  century,  the  ancient  city  of  Pompeii, 
buried  by  a storm  of  light  ashes  from  Vesuvius  sixteen  hundred  and  seventy 
years  before. 

It  was  not  the  accident,  but  the  timeliness  of  the  accident,  which  made  it 
important;  for  there  never  could  have  been  an  excavation  fifteen  feet  deep 
over  the  site  of  Pompeii  without  revealing  indications  of  the  buried  city.  But 
the  time  was  then  ripe  for  an  exploration.  It  had  become  possible  to  excite  a 
general  curiosity  in  a Past  exhumed;  and  such  a curiosity  is  a late  result  of 
culture:  it  does  not  exist  in  a dull  or  in  an  ignorant  mind.  And  this  curios- 
ity, nourished  and  inflamed  as  it  was  by  the  brilliant  and  marvelous  things 
brought  to  light  in  Pompeii  and  Herculaneum,  has  sought  new  gratification 


22 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART, 


wherever  a heap  of  ruins  betrayed  an  ancient  civilization.  It  looks  now  as  if 

many  of  the  old  cities  of  the 


world  are  in  layers  or  strata 
— a new  London  upon  an  old 
London,  and  perhaps  a Lon- 
don under  that — a city  three 
or  four  deep,  each  the  record 
of  an  era.  Two  Romes  we 
familiarly  know,  one  of  which 
is  built  in  part  upon  the  oth- 
er; and  at  Cairo  we  can  see 
the  process  going  on  by  which 
some  ancient  cities  w^ere  bur- 
ied without  volcanic  aid.  The 
dirt  of  the  un swept  streets, 
never  removed,  has  raised  the 
grade  of  Cairo  from  age  to  age. 


Eoman  Masks,  Comio  and  Tkagio. 


The  excavations  at  Rome,  so  rich  in  re- 
sults, were  not  needed  to  prove  that  to  the 
Romans  of  old  caricature  was  a familiar 
thing.  The  mere  magnitude  of  their  thea- 
tres, and  their  habit  of  performing  plays  in 
the  open  air,  compelled  caricature,  the  basis 
of  which  is  exaggeration.  Actors,  both  comic 
and  tragic,  wore  masks  of  very  elaborate  con- 
struction, made  of  resonant  metal,  and  so 
shaped  as  to  serve,  in  some  degree,  the  office 
of  a speaking-trumpet.  In  the  engravings  on 
this  page  are  represented  a pair  of  masks 
such  as  were  worn  by  Roman  actors  through- 
out the  empire,  of  which  many  specimens 
have  been  found. 

If  the  reader  has  ever  visited  the  Coli- 
seum at  Rome,  or  even  one  of  the  large  hip- 
podromes of  Paris  or  New  York,  and  can 
imagine  the  attempts  of  an  actor  to  exhib- 
it comic  or  tragic  effects  of  countenance  or 
of  vocal  utterance  across  spaces  so  extensive, 
he  will  readily  understand  the  necessity  of 
such  masks  as  these.  The  art  of  acting  could 
only  have  been  developed  in  small  theatres. 
In  the  open  air  or  in  the  uncovered  amphi- 
theatre all  must  have  been  vociferation  and 


A Roman  Comio  Actor  masked  for  the 
Part  op  Silenus. 


AMONG  THE  KOMANS. 


23 


caricature.  Observe  the  figure  of  old  Silenus,  on  preceding  page,  one  of  the 
chief  mirth-makers  of  antiquity,  who  lives  for  us  in  the  Old  Man  of  the  panto- 
mime. He  is  masked  for  the  theatre. 

The  legend  of  Silenus  is  itself  an  evidence  of  the  tendency  of  the  ancients 
to  fall  into  caricature.  To  the  Romans  he  was  at  once  the  tutor,  the  comrade, 
and  the  butt  of  jolly  Bacchus.  He  discoursed  wisdom  and  made  fun.  He 
was  usually  represented  as  an  old  man,  bald,  flat-nosed,  half  drunk,  riding  upon 
a broad-backed  ass,  or  reeling  along  by  the  aid  of  a staff,  uttering  shrewd  max- 
ims and  doing  ludicrous  acts.  People  wonder  that  the  pantomime  called 
‘‘Humpty  Dumpty”  should  be  played  a thousand  nights  in  New  York;  but 
the  substance  of  all  that  boisterous  nonsense,  that  exhibition  of  rollicking  free- 
dom from  restraints  of  law,  usage,  and  gravitation,  has  amused  mankind  for 
unknown  thousands  of  years ; for  it  is  merely  what  remains  to  us  of  the  leg- 
endary Bacchus  and  his  jovial  crew.  We  observe,  too,  that  the  great  comic 
books,  such  as Gil  Bias,”  “Hon  Quixote,”  “ Pickwick,”  and  others,  are  most 
effective  when  the  hero  is  most  like  Bacchus,  roaming  over  the  earth  with  mer- 
ry blades,  delightfully  free  from  the  duties  and  conditions  which  make  bond- 
men  of  us  all.  Mr.  Dickens  may  never  have  thought  of  it — and  lie  may — but 
there  is  much  of  the  charm  of  the  ancient  Bacchic  legends  in  the  narrative  of 
the  four  Pickwickians  and  Samuel  Weller  setting  off  on  the  top  of  a coach,  and 
meeting  all  kinds  of  gay  and  semi -lawless  adventures  in  country  towns  and 
rambling  inns.  Even  the  ancient  distribution  of  characters  is  hinted  at.  With 
a few  changes,  easily  imagined,  the  irrepressible  Sam  might  represent  Bacchus, 
and  his  master  bring  to  mind  the  sage  and  comic  Silenus.  Nothing  is  older 
than  our  modes  of  fun.  Even  in  seeking  the  origin  of  Punch,  investigators 
lose  themselves  groping  in  the  dim  light  of  the  most  remote  antiquity. 

How  readily  the  Roman  satirists  ran  into  caricature  all  their  readers  know, 
except  those  who  take  the  amusing  exaggerations  of  Juvenal  and  Horace  as 
statements  of  fact.  During  the  heat  of  our  antislavery  contest,  Dryden’s  trans- 
lation of  the  passage  in  Juvenal  which  pictures  the  luxurious  Roman  lady  or- 
dering her  slave  to  be  put  to  death  was  used  by  the  late  Mr.  W.  H.  Fry,  in  the 
New  York  Tribune^  with  thrilling  effect: 

“ Go  drag  that  slave  to  death  ! You  reason,  Why 
Should  the  poor  innocent  be  doomed  to  die? 

What  proofs?  For,  when  man’s  life  is  in  debate, 

The  judge  can  ne’er  too  long  deliberate. 

Call’st  thou  that  slave  a man  ? the  wife"  replies. 

Proved  or  unproved  the  crime,  the  villain  dies. 

I have  the  sovereign  power  to  save  or  kill. 

And  give  no  other  reason  but  my  will.” 

This  is  evidently  caricature.  Not  only  is  the  whole  of  Juvenal’s  sixth 
satire  a series  of  the  broadest  exaggerations,  but  with  regard  to  this  particular 
passage  we  have  evidence  of  its  burlesque  character  in  Horace  (Satire  HI., 
Book  I.),  where,  wishing  to  give  an  example  of  impossible  folly,  he  says,  “ If  a 


24 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


man  should  crucify  a slave  for  eating  some  of  the  fish  which  he  had  been 
ordered  to  take  away,  people  in  their  senses  would  call  him  a madman.”  Ju- 
venal exhibits  the  Roman  matron  of  his  period  undergoing  the  dressing  of  her 
hair,  giving  the  scene  the  same  unmistakable  character  of  caricature : 

“She  hurries  all  her  handmaids  to  the  task; 

Her  head  alone  will  twenty  dressers  ask. 

Psecas,  the  chief,  with  breast  and  shoulders  bare, 

Trembling,  considers  every  sacred  hair : 

If  any  straggler  from  his  rank  be  found, 

A pinch  must  for  the  mortal  sin  compound. 

“With  curls  on  curls  they  build  her  head  before, 

And  mount  it  with  a formidable  tower, 

A giantess  she  seems  ; but  look  behind. 

And  then  she  dwindles  to  the  Pigmy  kind. 

Duck-legged,  short-waisted,  such  a dwarf  she  is 
That  she  must  rise  on  tiptoe  for  a kiss. 

Meanwhile  her  husband’s  whole  estate  is  spent ; 

He  may  go  bare,  while  she  receives  his  rent,” 

The  spirit  of  caricature  speaks  in  these  lines.  There  are  passages  of  Hor- 
ace, too,  in  reading  which  the  picture  forms  itself  before  the  mind ; and  the 
poet  supplies  the  very  words  which  caricaturists  usually  employ  to  make  their 
meaning  more  obvious.  In  the  third  satire  of  the  second  book  a caricature  is 
exhibited  to  the  mind’s  eye  without  the  intervention  of  pencil.  We  see  the 
miser  Opirnius,  “ poor  amid  his  hoards  of  gold,”  who  has  starved  himself  into 
a lethargy ; his  heir  is  scouring  his  coffers  in  triumph ; but  the  doctor  devises 
a mode  of  rousing  his  patient.  He  orders  a table  to  be  brought  into  the  room, 
upon  which  he  causes  the  hidden  bags  of  money  to  be  poured  out,  and  several 
persons  to  draw  near  as  if  to  count  it.  Opirnius  revives  at  this  maddening 
spectacle,  and  the  doctor  urges  him  to  strengthen  himself  by  generous  food, 
and  so  balk  his  rapacious  heir.  Do  you  hesitate  ?”  cries  the  doctor.  “ Come, 
now,  take  this  preparation  of  rice.”  ‘‘How  much  did  it  cost?”  asks  the  miser. 
“ Only  a trifie.”  “ But  how  much  ?”  “ Eightpence.”  Opirnius,  appalled  at 

the  price,  whimpers,  “Alas  ! what  does  it  matter  whether  I die  of  a disease,  or 
by  plunder  and  extortion?”  Many  similar  examples  will  arrest  the  eye  of  one 
who  turns  over  the  pages  of  this  master  of  satire. 

The  great  festival  of  the  Roman  year,  the  Saturnalia,  which  occurred  in  the 
latter  half  of  December,  we  may  almost  say  was  consecrated  to  caricature,  so 
fond  were  the  Romans  of  every  kind  of  ludicrous  exaggeration.  This  festival, 
the  merry  Christmas  of  the  Roman  world,  gave  to  the  Christian  festival  many 
of  its  enlivening  observances.  During  the  Saturnalia  the  law  courts  and 
schools  were  closed;  there  was  a general  interchange  of  presents,  and  universal 
feasting;  there  were  fantastic  games,  processions  of  masked  figures  in  extrav- 
agant costumes,  and  religious  sacrifices.  For  three  days  the  slaves  were  not 
merely  exempt  from  labor,  but  they  enjoyed  freedom  of  speech,  even  to  the 


AMONG  THE  ROMANS. 


25 


abusing  of  their  masters.  In  one  of  his  satires,  Horace  gives  us  an  idea  of  the 
manner  in  which  slaves  burlesqued  their  lords  at  this  jocund  time.  He  reports 
some  of  the  remarks  of  his  own  slave,  Davus,  upon  himself  and  his  poetry. 
Davus,  it  is  evident,  had  discovered  the  histrionic  element  in  literature,  and 
pressed  it  home  upon  his  master.  ‘‘You  praise  the  simplicity  of  the  ancient 
Romans;  but  if  any  god  were  to  reduce  you  to  their  condition,  you,  the  same 
man  that  wrote  those  fine  things,  would  beg  to  be  let  off.  At  Rome  you  long 
for  the  country ; and  when  you  are  in  the  country,  you  praise  the  distant  city 
to  the  skies.  When  you  are  not  invited  out  to  suj:)per,  you  extol  your  homely 
repast  at  home,  and  hug  yourself  that  you  are  not  obliged  to  drink  with  any 
body  abroad.  As  if  you  ever  went  out  upon  compulsion ! But  let  Maecenas 
send  you  an  invitation  for  early  lam.p-light,  what  do  we  hear?  Will  no 
one  bring  the  oil  quicker?  Does  any  body  hear  me?  You  bellow  and  storm 
with  fury.  You  bought  me  for  five  hundred  drachmas,  but  what  if  it  turns 
out  that  you  are  the  greater  fool  of  the  two  ?”  And  thus  the  astute  and  witty 
Davus  continues  to  ply  his  master  with  taunts  and  jeers  and  wise  saws,  till 
Horace,  in  fury,  cries  out,  “ Where  can  I find  a stone  ?”  Davus  innocently 
asks,  “ What  need  is  there  here  of  such  a thing  as  a stone  ?”  “ Where  can  I 
get  some  javelins?”  roars  Horace.  Upon  which  Davus  quietly  remarks,  “This 
man  is  either  mad  or  making  verses.”  Horace  ends  the  colloquy  by  saying, 
“ If  you  do  not  this  instant  take  yourself  off.  I’ll  make  a field-hand  of  you  on 
my  Sabine  estate !” 

That  Roman  satirists  employed  the  pencil  and  the  brush  as  well  as  the  sty- 
lus, and  employed  them  freely  and  con- 
stantly, we  should  have  surmised  if  the 
fact  had  not  been  discovered.  Most  of 
the  caricatures  of  passing  events  speed- 
ily perish  in  all  countries,  because  the 
materials  usually  employed  in  them  are 
perishable.  To  preserve  so  slight  a thing 
as  a chalk  sketch  on  a wall  for  eighteen 
centuries,  accident  must  lend  a hand,  as 
it  has  in  the  instance  now  given. 

This  picture  was  found  in  1857  upon 
the  wall  of  a narrow  Roman  street,  which 
was  closed  up  and  shut  out  from  the 
light  of  day  about  a.d.  100,  to  facilitate 
an  extension  of  the  imperial  palace.  The 
wall  when  uncovered  was  found  scratch- 
ed all  over  with  rude  caricature  draw- 

^ p - . . Roman  Wall  Caeioature  of  a Christian. 

ings  in  the  style  oi  the  specimen  given. 

This  one  immediately  arrested  attention,  and  the  part  of  the  wall  on  which  it 
was  drawn  was  carefully  removed  to  the  Collegio  Romano,  in  the  museum  of 


26 


CARICATUKE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


which  it  may  now  be  inspected.  The  Greek  words  scrawled  upon  the  picture 
may  be  translated  thus:  “Alexamenos  is  worshiping  his  god.” 

These  words  sufficiently  indicate  that  the  picture  was  aimed  at  some  mem- 
ber, to  us  unknown,  of  the  despised  sect  of  the  Christians.  It  is  the  only  allu- 
sion to  Christianity  which  has  yet  been  found  upon  the  walls  of  the  Italian  cit- 
ies; but  it  is  extremely  probable  that  the  street  artists  found  in  the  strange 
usages  of  the  Christians  a very  frequent  subject. 

We  know  well  what  the  educated  class  of  the  Romans  thought  of  the 
Christians,  when  they  thought  of  them  at  all.  They  regarded  them  as  a sect 
of  extremely  absurd  Jews,  insanely  obstinate,  and  wholly  contemptible.  If  the 
professors  and  students  of  Harvard  and  Yale  should  read  in  the  papers  that  a 
new  sect  had  arisen  among  the  Mormons,  more  eccentric  and  ridiculous  even 
than  the  Mormons  themselves,  the  intelligence  would  excite  in  their  minds 
about  the  same  feeling  that  the  courtly  scholars  of  the  Roman  Empire  mani- 
fest when  they  speak  of  the  early  Christians.  Nothing  astonished  them  so 
much  as  their  ‘^obstinacy.”  “A  man,”  says  the  Emperor  Marcus  Aurelius, 
“ ought  to  be  ready  to  die  when  the  time  comes ; but  this  readiness  should  be 
the  result  of  a calm  judgment,  and  not  be  an  exhibition  of  mere  obstinacy,  as 
with  the  Christians.”  The  younger  Pliny,  too,  in  his  character  of  magistrate, 
was  extremely  perplexed  with  this  same  obstinacy.  He  tells  us  that  when  peo- 
ple were  brought  before  him  charged  with  being  Christians,  he  asked  them  the 
question.  Are  you  a Christian  ? If  they  said  they  were,  he  repeated  it  twice, 
threatening  them  with  punishment ; and  if  they  persisted,  he  ordered  them  to 
be  punished.  If  they  denied  the  charge,  he  put  them  to  the  proof  by  requir- 
ing them  to  repeat  after  him  an  invocation  to  the  gods,  and  to  offer  wine  and 
incense  to  the  emperor’s  statue.  Some  of  the  accused,  he  says,  reviled  Christ ; 
and  this  he  regarded  as  a sure  proof  of  innocence,  for  people  told  him  there 
was  no  forcing  real  Christians  to  do  an  act  of  that  nature.  Some  of  the  ac- 
cused owned  that  they  had  been  Christians  once,  three  years  ago  or  more,  and 
some  twenty  years  ago,  but  had  returned  to  the  worship  of  the  gods.  These, 
however,  declared  that,  after  all,  there  was  no  great  offense  in  being  Chris- 
tians. They  had  merely  met  on  a regular  day  before  dawn,  addressed  a form 
of  prayer  to  Christ  as  to  a divinity,  and  bound  themselves  by  a solemn  oath 
not  to  commit  frnud,  theft,  or  other  immoral  act,  nor  break  their  word,  nor 
betray  a trust ; after  which  they  used  to  separate,  then  re-assemble,  and  eat 
together  a harmless  meal. 

All  this  seemed  innocent  enough;  but  Pliny  was  not  satisfied.  judged 
it  necessary,”  he  writes  to  the  emperor,  “ to  try  to  get  at  the  real  truth  by  put- 
ting to  the  torture  two  female  slaves  who  were  said  to  officiate  at  their  relig- 
ious rites;  but  all  I could  discover  was  evidence  of  an  absurd  and  extravagant 
superstition.”  So  he  refers  the  whole  matter  to  the  emperor,  telling  him  that 
the  ‘^contagion”  is  not  confined  to  the  cities,  but  has  spread  into  the  villages 
and  into  the  country.  Still,  he  thought  it  could  be  checked  : nay,  it  had  been 


AMONG  THE  KOMANS. 


27 


checked;  for  the  temples,  which  had  been  almost  abandoned,  were  beginning 
to  be  frequented  again,  and  there  was  also  a general  demand  for  victims  for 
sacrifice,  which  till  lately  had  found  few  purchasers.”  The  wise  Trajan  ap- 
proved the  course  of  his  representative.  He  tells  him,  however,  not  to  go  out 
of  his  way  to  look  for  Christians ; but  if  any  were  brought  before  him,  why, 
of  course  he  must  inflict  the  penalty  unless  they  proved  their  innocence  by  in- 
voking the  gods.  The  remains  of  Roman  literature  have  nothing  so  interest- 
ing for  us  as  these  two  letters  of  Pliny  and  Trajan  of  the  year  103.  We  may 
rest  assured  that  the  walls  of  every  Roman  town  bore  testimony  to  the  con- 
tempt and  aversion  in  which  the  Christians  were  held,  particularly  by  those 
who  dealt  in  ^Sdctims”  and  served  the  altars — a very  numerous  and  important 
class  throughout  the  ancient  world. 


28 


CARICATUEE  AND  COMIC  AKT. 


CHAPTER  II 


AMONG  THE  GREEKS. 


REECE  was  the  native  home  of  all  that  we  now  call  art.  Upon  looking 


over  the  two  hundred  pages  of  art  gossip  in  the  writings  of  the  elder 
Pliny,  most  of  which  relates  to  Greece,  we  are  ready  to  ask.  Is  there  one  thing 
in  painting  or  drawing,  one  school,  device,  style,  or  method,  known  to  us  which 
was  not  familiar  to  the  Greeks?  They  had  their  Landseers — men  great  in 
dogs  and  all  animals;  they  had  artists  renowned  in  the  “Dutch  style”  ages 
before  the  Dutch  ceased  to  be  amphibious — artists  who  painted  barber-shop 
interiors  to  a hair,  and  donkeys  eating  cabbages  correct  to  a fibre;  they  had 
cattle  pieces  as  famous  throughout  the  classic  world  as  Rosa  Bonheur’s  “Horse 
Fair”  is  now  in  ours;  they  had  Rosa  Bonheurs  of  their  own — famous  women, 
a list  of  whose  names  Pliny  gives;  they  had  portrait-painters  too  good  to  be 
fashionable,  and  portrait-painters  too  fashionable  to  be  good ; they  had  artists 
who  excelled  in  flesh,  others  great  in  form,  others  excellent  in  composition ; 
they  took  plaster  casts  of  dead  faces;  they  had  varnishers  and  picture-clean- 
ers. NToted  pictures  were  spoken  of  as  having  lost  their  charm  through  an 
unskillful  cleaner.  They  had  their  “ life  school,”  and  used  it  as  artists  now  do, 
borrowing  from  each  model  her  special  beauty.  Zeuxis,  as  Pliny  records,  was 
so  scrupulously  careful  in  the  execution  of  a religious  painting  that  “ he  had 
the  young  maidens  of  the  place  stripped  for  examination,  and  selected  five  of 
them,  in  order  to  adopt  in  his  picture  the  most  commendable  points  in  the 
form  of  each.”  And  we  may  be  sure  that  every  maiden  of  them  felt  it  to  be 
an  honor  thus  to  contribute  perfection  to  a Juno,  executed  by  the  first  artist 
of  the  world,  which  was  to  adorn  the  temple  of  her  native  city. 

played  with  art  as  men  are  apt  to  play  with  the  implements  of  which 
they  are  masters.  Sosus,  the  great  artist  in  mosaics,  executed  at  Pergamus 
the  pavement  of  a banqueting-room  which  presented  the  appearance  of  a floor 
strewed  with  crumbs,  fragments  and  scraps  of  a feast,  not  yet  swept  away.  It 
was  renowned  as  the  “ Unswept  Hall  of  Pergamus.”  And  what  a pleasing 
story  is  that  of  the  contest  between  Zeuxis  and  his  rival,  Parrhasius ! On  the 
day  of  trial  Zeuxis  hung  in  the  place  of  exhibition  a painting  of  grapes,  and 
Parrhasius  a picture  of  a curtain.  Some  birds  flew  to  the  grapes  of  Zeuxis, 
and  began  to  pick  at  them.  The  artist,  overjoyed  at  so  striking  a proof  of  his 
success,  turned  haughtily  to  his  rival,  and  demanded  that  the  curtain  should  be 


AMONG  THE  GREEKS. 


29 


Burlesque  op  Jupiter’s  Wooing  op  the  Princess 
Alomena. 


drawn  aside  and  the  picture  revealed.  But  the  curtain  teas  the  picture.  He 
owned  himself  surpassed,  since  he  had 
only  deceived  birds,  but  Parrhasius  had 
deceived  Zeuxis. 

Could  comic  artists  and  caricatur- 
ists be  wanting  in  Athens?  Strange 
to  say,  it  was  the  gods  and  goddesses 
whom  the  caricaturists  of  Greece  as 
well  as  the  comic  writers  chiefly  select- 
ed for  ridicule.  All  their  works  have 
perished  except  a few  specimens  pre- 
served upon  pottery.  We  show  one 
from  a Greek  vase,  a rude  burlesque  of 
one  of  Jupiter’s  love  adventures,  the 
father  of  gods  and  men  being  accom- 
panied by  a Mercury  ludicrously  unlike 
the  light  and  agile  messenger  of  tlie 
gods.  The  story  goes  that  the  Prin- 
cess Alcmena,  though  betrothed  to  a 
lover,  vowed  her  hand  to  the  man  who  should  avenge  her  slaughtered  broth- 
ers. Jupiter  assumed  the  form  and  face  of  the  lover,  and,  pretending  to  have 
avenged  her  brothers’  death,  gained  admittance.  Pliny  describes  a celebrated 
burlesque  painting  of  the  birth  of  Bacchus  from  Jupiter’s  thigh,  in  which  the 
god  of  the  gods  was  represented  wearing  a woman’s  cap,  in  a highly  ridicu- 
lous posture,  crying  out,  and  surrounded  by  goddesses  in  the  character  of  mid- 
wives. The  best  specimen  of  Greek  caricature  that  has  come  down  to  us 
burlesques  no  less  serious  a theme  than  the  great  oracle  of  Apollo  at  Delphos, 
given  on  page  30. 

This  remarkable  work  owes  its  preservation  to  the  imperishable  nature  of 
the  material  on  which  it  was  executed.  It  was  copied  from  a large  vessel 
used  by  the  Greeks  and  Romans  for  holding  vinegar,  a conspicuous  object 
upon  their  tables,  and  therefore  inviting  ornament.  What  audacity  to  bur- 
lesque an  oracle  to  which  kings  and  conquerors  humbly  repaired  for  direction, 
and  which  all  Greece  held  in  awe  ! Croesus  propitiated  this  oracle  by  the  gift 
of  a solid  golden  lion  as  large  as  life,  and  the  Phocians  found  in  its  coffers,  and 
carried  off,  a sum  equal  to  nearly  eleven  millions  of  dollars  in  gold.  Such  was 
the  general  belief  in  its  divine  inspiration  ! But  in  this  picture  we  see  the 
oracle,  the  god,  and  those  who  consult  them,  all  exhibited  in  the  broadest  bur- 
lesque: Apollo  as  a quack  doctor  on  his  platform,  with  bag,  bow,  and  cap; 
Chiron,  old  and  blind,  struggling  up  the  steps  to  consult  him,  aided  by  Apollo 
at  his  head  and  a friend  pushing  behind ; the  nymphs  surveying  the  scene 
from  the  heights  of  Parnassus ; and  the  manager  of  the  spectacle,  who  looks 
on  from  below.  How  strange  is  this  ! 


30 


CARICATUKE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


But  the  Greek  literature  is  also  full  of  this  wild  license.  Lucian  depicts 
the  gods  in  council  ludicrously  discussing  the  danger  they  were  in  from  the 
philosophers.  Jupiter  says,  “If  men  are  once  persuaded  that  there  are  no 
gods,  or,  if  there  are  gods,  that  we  take  no’  care  of  human  affairs,  we  shall  have 
no  more  gifts  or  victims  from  them,  but  may  sit  and  starve  on  Olympus  with- 
out festivals,  holidays,  sacrifices,  or  any  pomp  or  ceremonies  whatever.”  The 
wdiole  debate  is  in  this  manner,  and  is  at  the  same  time  a burlesque  of  the 
political  discussions  at  the  Athenian  mass-meetings.  What  can  be  more  ludi- 
crous than  the  story  of  Mercury  visiting  Athens  in  disguise  in  order  to  dis- 
cover the  estimation  in  which  he  was  held  among  mortals?  He  enters  the 
shop  of  a dealer  in  images,  where  he  inquires  the  price  first  of  a Jupiter,  then 


Gkeek  Caricature  of  tue  Oracle  of  Apollo  at  Delpuos. 


of  an  Apollo,  and,  lastly,  with  a blush,  of  a Mercury.  “ Oh,”  says  the  dealer, 
“if  you  take  the  Jupiter  and  the  Apollo,  I will  throw  the  Mercury  in.” 

Xor  did  the  witty,  rollicking  Greeks  confine  their  satire  to  the  immortals. 
Of  the  famous  mirth -provokers  of  the  world,  such  as  Cervantes,  Ariosto, 
Moliere,  Rabelais,  Sterne,  Voltaire,  Thackeray,  Dickens,  the  one  that  had  most 
power  to  produce  mere  physical  laughter,  power  to  shake  the  sides  and  cause 
])eople  to  roll  helpless  upon  the  floor,  was  the  Greek  dramatist  Aristophanes. 
The  force  of  the  comic  can  no  farther  go  than  he  has  carried  it  in  some  of  the 
scenes  of  his  best  comedies.  Even  to  us,  far  removed  as  we  are,  in  taste  as 
well  as  in  time,  from  that  wonderful  Athens  of  his,  they  are  still  irresistibly  di- 
verting. This  master  of  mirth  is  never  so  effective  as  when  he  is  turning  into 


AMONG  THE  GREEKS. 


31 


ridicule  the  philosophers  and  poets  for  whose  sake  Greece  is  still  a dear,  ven- 
erable name  to  all  the  civilized  w^orld.  In  his  comedy  of  “The  Frogs”  he  sends 
Bacchus  down  into  Hades  with  every  circumstance  of  riotous  burlesque,  and 
there  he  exhibits  the  two  great  tragic  poets,  ^schylus  and  Euripides,  standing 
opposite  each  other,  and  competing  for  the  tragic  throne  by  reciting  verses  in 
which  the  mannerism  of  each,  as  well  as  familiar  passages  of  their  plays,  is 
broadly  burlesqued.  ^N’othing  in  literature  can  be  found  more  ludicrous  or 
less  becoming,  unless  we  look  for  it  in  Aristophanes  himself.  In  his  play  of 
“The  Clouds”  occurs  his  caricature  of  Socrates,  of  infinite  absurdity,  but  not 
ludicrous  to  us,  because  we  read  it  as  part  of  the  story  of  a sublime  and  affect- 
ing martyrdom.  It  fills  our  minds  with  wonder  to  think  that  a people  among 
whom  a Socrates  could  have  been  formed  could  have  borne  to  see  him  thus 
profaned.  A rogue  of  a father,  plagued  by  an  extravagant  son,  repairs  to  the 
school  of  Socrates  to  learn  the  arts  by  which  creditors  are  argued  out  of  their 
just  claims  in  courts  of  justice.  Upon  reaching  the  place,  the  door  of  the 
“ Thinking  Shop  ” opens,  and  behold ! a caricature  all  ready  for  the  artist’s 
pencil.  The  pupils  are  discovered  with  their  heads  fixed  to  the  floor,  their 
backs  uppermost,  and  Socrates  hanging  from  the  ceiling  in  a basket.  The  vis- 
itor, transfixed  with  wonder,  questions  his  companion.  He  asks  why  they  pre- 
sent that  portion  of  their  bodies  to  heaven.  “It  is  getting  taught  astrono- 
my alone  by  itself.”  “And  who  is  this  man  in  the  basket?”  “Himself.” 
“Who’s  Himself?”  “Socrates!”  The  visitor  at  length  addresses  the  master 
by  a diminutive,  as  though  he  had  said,  “ Socrates,  dear  little  Socrates.”  The 
philosopher  speaks:  “Why  callest  thou  me,  thou  creature  of  a day?”  “Tell 
me,  first,  I beg,  what  you  are  doing  up  there.”  “ I am  walking  in  the  air,  and 
speculating  about  the  sun ; for  I should  never  have  rightly  learned  celestial 
things  if  I had  not  suspended  the  intellect,  and  subtly  mingled  Thought  with 
its  kindred  Air.”  All  this  is  in  the  very  spirit  of  caricature.  Half  of  Aris- 
tophanes is  caricature.  In  characterizing  the  light  literature  of  Greece  we 
are  reminded  of  Juvenal’s  remark  upon  the  Greek  people,  “All  Greece  is  a 
comedian.” 


32 


CARICATUEE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


CHAPTER  III. 

AMONG  THE  ANCIENT  EGYPTIANS. 

Egyptian  art  was  old  when  Grecian  art  was  young,  and  it  remained 
crude  when  the  art  of  Greece  had  reached  its  highest  development.  But 
not  the  less  did  it  delight  in  caricature  and  burlesque.  In  the  Egyptian  collec- 
tion belonging  to  the  New  York  Historical  Society  there  is  a specimen  of  the 
Egyptians’  favorite  kind  of  burlesque  picture  which  dates  back  three  thousand 
years,  but  which  stands  out  more  clearly  now  upon  its  slab  of  limestone  than 
we  can  engrave  it  here. 


An  Egyptian  Caiuoature. 


Dr,  Abbott,  who  brought  this  specimen  from  Thebes,  interpreted  it  to  be  a 
representation  of  a lion  seated  upon  a throne,  as  king,  receiving  from  a fox, 
personating  a high-priest,  an  offering  of  a goose  and  a fan.  It  is  probably  a 
burlesque  of  a well-known  picture ; for  in  one  of  the  Egyptian  papyri  in  the 
British  Museum  there  is  a drawing  of  a lion  and  unicorn  playing  chess,  which 
is  a manifest  caricature  of  a j>icture  frequently  repeated  upon  the  ancient  mon- 
uments. It  was  from  Egypt,  then,  that  the  classic  nations  caught  this  childish 
fancy  of  ridiculing  the  actions  of  men  by  picturing  animals  performing  similar 
ones;  and  it  is  surprising  to  note  how  fond  the  Egyptian  artists  were  of  this 
simple  device.  On  the  same  papyrus  there  are  several  other  interesting  speci- 
mens: a lion  on  his  hind-legs  engaged  in  laying  out  as  a mummy  the  dead 
body  of  a hoofed  animal ; a tiger  or  wild  cat  driving  a flock  of  geese  to  mar- 


AMONG  THE  ANCIENT  EGYPTIANS. 


33 


ket;  another  tiger  carrying  a hoe  on  one  shoulder  and  a bag  of  seed  on  the 
other;  an  animal  playing  on  a double  pipe,  and  driving  before  him  a herd  of 
small  stags,  like  a shepherd ; a hippopotamus  washing  his  hands  in  a tall  wa- 
ter-jar; an  animal  on  a throne,  with  another  behind  him  as  a fan-bearer,  and  a 
third  presenting  him  with  a bouquet.  No  place  was  too  sacred  for  such  play- 
ful delineations.  In  one  of  the  royal  sepulchres  at  Thebes,  as  Kenrick  relates, 
there  is  a picture  of  an  ass  and  a lion  singing,  accompanying  themselves  on 
the  phorminx  and  the  harp.  There  is  also  an  elaborate  burlesque  of  a battle 
piece,  in  which  a fortress  is  attacked  by  rats,  and  defended  by  cats,  which  are 
visible  on  the  battlements.  Some  rats  bring  a ladder  to  the  walls  and  prepare 
to  scale  them,  while  others,  armed  witli  spears,  shields,  and  bows,  protect  the 
assailants.  One  rat  of  enormous  size,  in  a chariot  drawn  by  dogs,  has  pierced 
several  cats  with  arrows,  and  is  swinging  round  his  battle-axe  in  exact  imita- 
tion of  Raineses,  in  a serious  picture,  dealing  destruction  on  his  enemies.  On 
a papyrus  at  Turin  there  is  a representation  of  a cat  with  a shepherd’s  crook 
watching  a dock  of  geese,  while  a cynocephalus  near  by  plays  upon  the  flute. 
Of  this  class  of  burlesques  the  most  interesting  example,  perhaps,  is  the  one 
annexed,  representing  a Soul 
doomed  to  return  to  its  earth- 
ly home  in  the  form  of  a pig. 

This  picture,  which  is  of 
such  antiquity  that  it  was  an 
object  of  curiosity  to  the  Ro- 
mans and  the  Greeks,  is  part  .. 

of  the  decoration  of  a king’s  a Conbemned  Soul,  Egyptian  Caeicatdee. 

tomb.  In  the  original,  Osiris,  the  august  judge  of  departed  spirits,  is  repre- 
sented on  his  throne,  near  the  stern  of  the  boat,  waving  away  the  Soul,  which 
he  has  just  weighed  in  his  unerring  scales  and  found  wanting;  while  close  to 
the  shore  a man  hews  away  the  ground,  to  intimate  that  all  communication  is 
cut  off  between  the  lost  spirit  and  the  abode  of  the  blessed.  The  animals  that 
execute  the  stern  decree  are  the  dog-headed  monkeys,  sacred  in  the  mythology 
of  Egypt. 

That  the  ancient  Egyptians  were  a jovial  people  who  sat  long  at  the  wine, 
we  might  infer  from  the  caricatures  which  have  been  discovered  in  Egypt,  if 


Egyptian  Sekvants  conveying 


THEIR  Masters  from  a Carouse. 


we  did  not  know  it 
from  other  sources  of 
information.  Repre- 
sentations have  been  , 
found  of  every  part 
of  the  process  of 
wine  - making,  from 
the  planting  of  the 
vineyard  to  the  stor- 


3 


34 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


ing-away  of  the  wine-jars.  In  the  valuable  works  of  Sir  Gardner  Wilkinson* 
many  of  these  curious  pictures  are  given : the  vineyard  and  its  trellis-work ; 
men  frightening  away  the  birds  with  slings ; a vineyard  with  a water-tank  for 
irrigation ; the  grape  harvest ; baskets  full  of  grapes  covered  with  leaves ; kids 
browsing  upon  the  vines;  trained  monkeys  gathering  grapes;  the  wine-press 
in-  operation ; men  pressing  grapes  by  the  natural  process  of  treading ; pour- 
ing the  wine  into  jars;  and  rows  of  jars  put  away  for  future  use.  The  same 
laborious  author  favors  us  with  ancient  Egyptian  caricatures  which  serve  to 
show  that  wine  was  a creature  as  capable  of  abuse  thirty  centuries  ago  as  it 
is  now. 

Pictures  of  similar  character  are  not  unfrequent  upon  the  ancient  frescoes, 
and  many  of  them  are  far  more  extravagant  than  this,  exhibiting  men  dancing 
wildly,  standing  upon  their  heads,  and  riotously  fighting.  From  Sir  Gardner 
Wilkinson’s  disclosures  we  may  reasonably  infer  that  the  arts  of  debauchery 
have  received  little  addition  during  the  last  three  thousand  years.  Even  the 
seductive  cocktail  is  not  modern.  The  ancient  Egyptians  imbibed  stimulants 
to  excite  an  appetite  for  wine,  and  munched  the  biting  cabbage-leaf  for  the 
same  purpose.  Beer  in  several  varieties  was  known  to  them  also ; veritable 
beer,  made  of  barley  and  a bitter  herb ; beer  so  excellent  that  the  dainty  Greek 
travelers  commended  it  as  a drink  only  inferior  to  wine.  Even  the  Egyptian 
ladies  did  not  always  resist  the  temptation  of  so  many  modes  of  intoxication. 

Nor  did  they  escape  the  cari- 
caturist’s pencil. 

This  unfortunate  lady,  as 
Sir  Gardner  conjectures,  after 
indulging  in  potations  deep  of 
the  renowned  Egyptian  wine, 
had  been  suddenly  overtaken 
by  the  consequences,  and  had 
called  for  assistance  too  late. 
Egyptian  satirists  did  not 
spare  the  ladies,  and  they  aim- 
ed their  shafts  at  the  same  foi- 
bles that  have  called  forth  so 
many  efforts  of  pencil  and  pen  in  later  times.  Whenever,  indeed,  we  look 
closely  into  ancient  life,  we  are  struck  with  the  similarity  of  the  daily  routine 
to  that  of  our  own  time.  Every  detail  of  social  existence  is  imperishably  re- 
corded upon  the  monuments  of  ancient  Egypt,  even  to  the  tone  and  style  and 
mishaps  of  a fashionable  party.  We  see  the  givers  of  the  entertainment,  the 
master  and  mistress  of  the  mansion,  seated  side  by  side  upon  a sofa;  the 


Too  Late  with  the  Babin. 


* “A  Popular  Account  of  the  Ancient  Egyptians,”  by  Sir  J.  Gardner  Wilkinson,  2 vols. 
Harper  & Brothers,  1854. 


AMONG  THE  ANCIENT  EGYPTIANS. 


35 


guests  coming  up  as  they  arrive  to  salute  them;  the  musicians  and  dancers 
bowing  low  to  them  before  beginning  to  perform ; a pet  monkey,  a dog,  or  a 
gazelle  tied  to  the  leg  of  the  sofa;  the  youngest  child  of  the  family  sitting 
on  the  floor  by  its  mother’s  side,  or  upon  its  father’s  knee ; the  ladies  sitting 
in  groups,  conversing  upon  the  deathless,  inexhaustible  subject  of  dress,  and 
showing  one  another  their  trinkets. 

Sir  Gardner  Wilkinson  gives  us  also  the  pleasing  information  that  it  was 
thought  a pretty  compliment  for  one  guest  to  offer  another  a flower  from  his 
bouquet,  and  that  the  guests  endeavored  to  gratify  their  entertainers  by  point- 
ing out  to  one  another,  with  expressions  of  admiration,  the  tasteful  knickknacks, 
the  boxes  of  carved  wood  or  ivory,  the  vases,  the  elegant  light  tables,  the  chairs, 
ottomans,  cushions,  carpets,  and  furniture  with  which  the  apartment  was  pro- 
vided. This  too  transparent  flattery  could  not  escape  such  inveterate  carica- 
turists as  the  Egyptian  artists.  In  a tomb  at  Thebes  may  be  seen  a ludicrous 
representation  of  scenes  at  a party  where  several  of  the  guests  had  been  lost  in 
rapturous  admiration  of  the  objects  around  them.  A young  man,  either  from 
awkwardness  or  from  having  gone  too  often  to  the  wine -jar,  had  reclined 
against  a wooden  column  placed  in  the  centre  of  the  room  to  support  a tempo- 
rary ornament.  There  is  a crash ! The  ornamental  structure  falls  upon  some 
of  the  absorbed  guests.  Ladies  have  recourse  to  the  immortal  privilege  of 
their  sex  — they  scream.  All  is  confusion.  Uplifted  hands  ward  off  the  fall- 
ing masses.  In  a few  moments,  when  it  is  discovered  that  no  one  is  hurt,  peace 
is  restored,  and  all  the  company  converse  merrily  over  the  incident. 

It  is  strange  to  find  such  pictures  in  a tomb.  But  it  seems  as  if  death  and 
funerals  and  graves,  with  their  elaborate  paraphernalia,  were  provocative  of 
mirthful  delineation.  In  one  noted  royal  tomb  there  is  a representation  of  the 
funeral  procession,  part  of  which  was  evidently  designed  to  excite  merriment. 
The  Ethiopians  who  follow  in  the  train  of  the  mourning  queen  have  their  hair 
plaited  in  most  fantastic  fashion,  and  their  tunics  of  leopard’s  skin  are  so  ar- 
ranged that  a preposterously  enormous  tail  hangs  down  behind  for  the  next 
man  to  step  upon.  One  of  the  extensive  colored  plates  of  Sir  Gardner  Wilkin- 
son’s larger  work  presents  to  our  view  a solemn  and  stately  procession  of  fu- 
neral barges  crossing  the  Lake  of  the  Dead  at  Thebes  on  its  way  to  the  place 
of  burial.  The  first  boat  contains  the  coffin,  decorated  with  flowers,  a high- 
priest  burning  incense  before  a table  of  offerings,  and  the  female  relatives  of 
the  deceased  lamenting  their  loss ; two  barges  are  filled  with  mourning  friends, 
one  containing  only  women  and  the  other  only  men ; two  more  are  occupied  by 
professional  persons — the  undertaker’s  assistants,  as  we  should  call  them — em- 
ployed to  carry  offerings,  boxes,  chairs,  and  other  funeral  objects.  It  was  in 
drawing  one  of  these  vessels  that  the  artist  could  not  refrain  from  putting  in  a 
little  fun.  One  of  the  barges  having  grounded  upon  the  shore,  the  vessel  be- 
hind comes  into  collision  with  her,  upsetting  a table  upon  the  oarsmen  and 
causing  much  confusion.  It  is  not  improbable  that  the  picture  records  an  in- 
cident of  that  particular  funeral. 


36 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

AMONG  THE  HINDOOS. 

IF  we  go  farther  back  into  antiquity,  it  is  India  which  first  arrests  and  long- 
est absorbs  our  attention — India,  fecund  mother  of  tradition,  the  source  of 
almost  all  the  rites,  beliefs,  and  observances  of  the  ancient  nations.  When  we 
visit  the  collections  of  the  India  House,  the  British  Museum,  the  Mission 
Rooms,  or  turn  over  the  startling  pages  of  “The  Hindu  Pantheon”  of  Major 
Edward  Moor,  we  are  ready  to  exclaim.  Here  all  is  caricature  ! This  brazen 
image,  for  example,  of  a partly  naked  man  with  an  ele]3hant’s  head  and  trunk, 
seated  upon  a huge  rat,  and  feeding  himself  with  his  trunk  from  a bowl  held 
in  his  hand — surely  this  is  caricature.  By  no  means.  It  is  an  image  of  the 
most  popular  of  the  Hindoo  deities  — Ganesa,  god  of  prudence  and  policy,  in- 
voked at  the  beginning  of  all  enterprises,  and  over  whose  head  is  written  the 
sacred  word  Aum^  never  uttered  by  a Hindoo  except  with  awe  and  veneration. 
If  a man  begins  to  build  a house,  he  calls  on  Ganesa,  and  sets  up  an  image  of 
him  near  the  spot.  Mile-stones  are  fashioned  in  his  likeness,  and  he  serves  as 
the  road-side  god,  even  if  the  pious  peasants  who  place  him  where  two  roads 
cross  can  only  afford  the  rudest  resemblance  to  an  elephant’s  head  daubed  with 
oil  and  red  ochre.  Rude  as  it  may  be,  a passing  traveler  will  occasionally  hang 
upon  it  a wreath  of  flowers.  Major  Moor  gives  us  a hideous  picture  of  Maha- 
Kala,  with  huge  mouth  and  enormous  protruding  tongue,  squat,  naked,  upon 
the  ground,  and  holding  up  a large  sword.  This  preposterous  figure  is  still 
farther  removed  from  the  burlesque.  It  is  the  Hindoo  mode  of  representing 
Eternity^  whose  vast  insatiate  maw  devours  men,  cities,  kingdoms,  and  will  at 
length  swallow  the  universe ; then  all  the  crowd  of  inferior  deities,  and  finally 
itself,  leaving  only  Bralim,  the  One  Eternal,  to  inhabit  the  infinite  void.  Hun- 
dreds of  such  revolting  crudities  meet  the  eye  in  every  extensive  Indian  col- 
lection. 

But  the  element  of  fun  and  burlesque  is  not  wanting  in  the  Hindoo  Pan- 
theon. Krishna  is  the  jolly  Bacchus,  the  Don  Juan,  of  the  Indian  deities. 
Behold  him  on  his  travels  mounted  upon  an  elephant,  which  is  formed  of  the 
bodies  of  the  obliging  damsels  who  accompany  him ! 

There  is  no  end  to  the  tales  related  of  the  mischievous,  jovial,  irrepressible 
Krishna.  The  ladies  who  go  with  him  everywhere,  a countless  multitude,  are 
so  accommodating  as  to  wreathe  and  twist  themselves  into  the  form  of  any 


AMONG  THE  HINDOOS. 


37 


creature  he  may  wish  to  ride ; sometimes  into  that  of  a horse,  sometimes  into 
that  of  a bird. 

In  other  pictures 
he  appears  riding  in 
a palanquin,  which  is 
likewise  composed  of 
girls,  and  the  bearers 
are  girls  also.  In  the 
course  of  one  advent- 
ure, being  in  great  dan- 
ger from  the  wrath  of 
his  numerous  enemies, 
he  created  an  enormous 
snake,  in  whose  vast 
interior  his  flocks,  his 
herds,  his  followers, 
and  himself  found  ref- 
uge. At  a festival  held 
in  his  honor,  which  was 
attended  by  a great 
number  of  damsels,  he 

suddenly  appeared,  in  Keisuna’s  Attendants  assuming  the  Form  of  a Bird, 


38 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


Kkishna  in  his  Palanquin. 


the  midst  of  the  company  and  proposed  a dance ; and,  that  each  of  them  might 
be  provided  with  a partner,  he  divided  himself  into  as  many  complete  and 
captivating  Krishnas  as  there  were  ladies.  One  summer,  when  he  was  pass- 
ing the  hot  season  on  the  sea -shore  with  his  retinue  of  ladies,  his  musical 
comrade,  Nareda,  hinted  to  him  that,  since  he  had  such  a multitude  of 
wives,  it  would  be  no  great  stretch  of  generosity  to  spare  one  to  a poor 
musician  who  had  no  wife  at  all.  “ Court  any  one  you  please,”  said  the 
merry  god.  So  IsTareda  went  wooing  from  house  to  house,  but  in  every  house 
he  found  Krishna  perfectly  domesticated,  the  ever -attentive  husband,  and 
the  lady  quite  sure  that  she  had  him  all  to  herself.  Kareda  continued  his 
quest  until  he  had  visited  precisely  sixteen  thousand  and  eight  houses,  in 
each  and  all  of  which,  at  one  and  the  same  time,  Krishna  was  the  established 
lord.  Then  he  gave  it  up.  One  of  the  pictures  which  illustrate  the  endless 
biography  of  this  entertaining  deity  represents  him  going  through  the  cere- 
mony of  marriage  with  a bear,  both  squatting  upon  a carpet  in  the  prescribed 
attitude,  the  bear  grinning  satisfaction,  two  bears  in  attendance  standing  on 
their  hind -feet,  and  two  priests  blessing  the  union.  This  picture  is  more 
spirited,  is  more  like  art,  than  any  other  yet  copied  from  Hindoo  originals. 

To  this  day,  as  the  missionaries  report,  the  people  of  India  are  excessively 
addicted  to  every  kind  of  jesting  which  is  within  their  capacity,  and  delight 
especially  in  all  the  monstrous  comicalities  of  their  mythology.  ~No  matter 
how  serious  an  impression  a speaker  may  have  made  upon  a village  group, 
let  him  but  use  a word  in  a manner  which  suggests  a ludicrous  image  or  ridic- 
ulous pun,  and  the  assembly  at  once  breaks  up  in  laughter,  not  to  be  gathered 
again. 

O 


AMONG  THE  HINDOOS. 


39 


In  late  years,  those  of  the  inhabitants  of  India  who  read  the  language  of 
their  conquerors  have  had  an  opportunity  of  becoming  acquainted  with  their 
humor.  Wherever  a hundred  English  officers  are  gathered,  there  is  the  posr 
sibility  of  an  illustrated  comic  periodical,  and,  accordingly,  we  find  one  such 
in  several  of  the  garrisoned  places  held  by  the  English  in  remote  parts  of  the 
world.  Calcutta,  as  the  Athenmum  informs  us,  “ has  its  Punchy  or  Indian 
Charivari^'’  which  is  not  unworthy  of  its  English  namesake. 


40 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


CHAPTER  y. 

RELIGIOUS  CARICATURE  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 

R.  ROBERT  TOMES,  American  consul,  a few  years  ago,  at  the  French 


city  of  Rheims,  describes  very  agreeably  the  impression  made  upon  his 
mind  by  the  grand  historic  cathedral  of  that  ancient  place.*  Filled  with  a 
sense  of  the  majestic  presence  of  the  edifice,  he  approached  one  of  the  chief 
portals,  to  find  it  crusted  with  a most  uncouth  semi-burlesque  representation, 
cut  in  stone,  of  the  Last  Judgment.  The  trump  has  sounded,  and  the  Lord 
from  a lofty  throne  is  pronouncing  doom  upon  the  risen  as  they  are  brought 
up  to  the  judgment -seat  by  the  angels.  Below  him  are  two  rows  of  the 
dead  just  rising  from  their  graves,  extending  to  the  full  width  of  the  great 
door.  Upoil  many  of  the  faces  there  is  an  expression  of  amazement,  which  the 
artist  apparently  designed  to  be  comic,  and  several  of  the  attitudes  are  ex- 
tremely absurd  and  ludicrous.  Some  have  managed  to  push  off  the  lid  of 
their  touibs  a little  way,  and  are  peeping  out  through  the  narrow  aperture, 
others  have  just  got  their  heads  above  the  surface  of  the  ground,  and  others 
are  sitting  up  in  their  graves;  some  have  one  leg  out,  some  are  springing  into 
the  air,  and  some  are  running,  as  if  in  wild  fright,  for  their  lives.  Though  the 
usual  expression  upon  the  faces  is  one  of  astonishment,  yet  this  is  varied. 
Some  are  rubbing  their  eyes  as  if  startled  from  a deep  sleep,  but  not  yet  aware 
of  the  cause  of  alarm;  others  are  utterly  bewildered,  and  hesitate  to  leave  their 
resting-place ; some  leap  out  in  mad  excitement,  and  others  hurry  off  as  if  fear- 
ing to  be  again  consigned  to  the  tomb.  An  angel  is  leading  a cheerful  com- 
pany of  popes,  bishops,  and  kings  toward  the  Saviour,  while  a hideous  demon, 
with  a mouth  stretching  from  ear  to  ear,  is  dragging  off  a number  of  the  con- 
demned toward  the  devil,  who  is  seen  stirring  up  a huge  caldron  boiling  and 
bubbling  with  naked  babies,  dead  before  baptism.  On  another  part  of  the 
wall  is  a carved  representation  of  the  vices  which  led  to  the  destruction  of 
Sodom  and  Gomorrah.  These  were  so  monstrously  obscene  that  the  authori- 
ties of  the  cathedral,  in  deference  to  the  modern  sense  of  decency,  have  caused 
them  to  be  partly  cut  away  by  the  chisel. 

The  first  cut  on  the  next  page  is  an  example  of  burlesque  ornament.  The 
artist  apparently  intended  to  indicate  another  termination  of  the  interview 


* “The  Champagne  Country, ”p.  34,  by  Robert  Tomes,  London,  1867. 


RELIGIOUS  CARICATURE  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


41 


than  the  one  recorded  by  ^sop  between  the  wolf  and  the  stork.  The  old 
cathedral  at  Strasburg,  destroyed  a hun- 
dred years  ago,  was  long  renowned  for  its 
sculptured  burlesques.  We  give  two  of 
several  capitals  exhibiting  the  sacred  rites 
of  the  Church  travestied  by  animals. 

It  marks  the  change  in  the  feelings  and 
manners  of  men  that,  three  hundred  years 
after  those  Strasburg  capitals  were  carved, 
with  the  sanction  of  the  chapter,  a book- 
seller, for  only  exhibiting  an  engraving  of 
some  of  them  in  his  shop  window,  was  con- 
victed of  having  committed  a crime  ^^most 
scandalous  and  injurious  to  religion.”  His 
sentence  was  “ to  make  the  amende  hono- 
rable^ naked  to  his  shirt,  a rope  round  his 
neck,  holding  in  his  hand  a lighted  wax-candle  weighing  two  pounds,  before 
the  principal  door  of  the  cathedral,  whither  he  will  be  conducted  by  the  execu- 
tioner, and  there,  on  his  knees,  with  uncovered  head,”  confess  his  fault  and  ask 
pardon  of  God  and  the  king.  The  pictures  were  to  be  burned  before  his  eyes, 
and  then,  after  paying  all  the  costs  of  the  prosecution,  he  was  to  go  into  eter- 
nal banishment. 

Other  American  consuls  besides  Mr.  Tomes,  and  multitudes  of  American 


Capital  in  the  Aijtun  Cathedeal. 


Capitals  in  the  Stkasburg  Cathedeal,  a.d,  1300. 


citizens  not  so  fortunate  as  to  study  mediaeval  art  at  their  country’s  expense, 
have  been  profoundly  puzzled  by  this  crust  of  crude  burlesque  on  ecclesias- 
tical architecture.  The  objects  in  Europe  which  usually  give  to  a susceptible 
American  his  first  and  his  last  rapture  are  the  cathedrals,  those  venerable  enig- 
mas, the  glory  and  shame  of  the  Middle  Ages,  which  present  so  complete  a 


42 


CARICATUKE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


contrast  to  the  toy- temples,  new,  cabinet-finished,  upholstered,  sofa-seated,  of 
American  cities,  not  to  mention  the  consecrated  barns,  white-painted  and  tree- 
less, of  the  rural  districts.  And  the  cathedrals  are  a contrast  to  every  thing 
in  Europe  also,  if  only  from  their  prodigious  magnitude.  A cathedral  town 
generally  stands  in  a valley,  through  which  a small  river  winds.  When  the 
visitor  from  any  of  the  encompassing  hills  gets  his  first  view  of  the  compact 
little  city,  the  cathedral  looms  up  in  the  midst  thereof  so  vast,  so  tall,  that  the 
disproportion  to  the  surrounding  structures  is  sometimes  even  ludicrous,  like  a 
huge  black  elephant  with  a flock  of  small  brown  sheep  huddling  about  its  feet. 
But  when  at  last  the  stranger  stands  in  its  shadow,  he  finds  the  spell  of  its 
presence  irresistible ; and  it  is  a spell  which  the  lapse  of  time  not  unfrequently 
strengthens,  till  he  is  conscious  of  a tender,  strong  attachment  to  the  edifice, 
which  leads  him  to  visit  it  at  unusual  times,  to  try  the  effect  upon  it  of  moon- 
light, of  storm,  of  dawn  and  twilight,  of  mist,  rain,  and  snow.  He  finds  him- 
self going  to  it  for  solace  and  rest.  On  setting  out  upon  a journey,  he  makes  a 
detour  to  get  another  last  look,  and,  returning,  goes,  valise  in  hand,  to  see  his 
cathedral  before  he  sees  his  companions.  Many  American  consuls  have  had 
this  experience,  have  truly  fallen  in  love  wdth  the  cathedral  of  their  station, 
and  remained  faithful  to  it  for  years  after  their  return,  like  Mr.  Howells,  whose 
heart  and  pen  still  return  to  Venice  and  San  Carlo,  so  much  to  the  delight  of 
his  readers. 

This  charm  appears  to  lie  in  the  mere  grandeur  of  the  edifice  as  a work  of 
art,  for  we  observe  it  to  be  most  potent  over  persons  who  are  least  in  sympa- 
thy with  the  feeling  which  cathedrals  embody.  Very  religious  people  are  as 
likely  to  be  repelled  as  attracted  by  them ; and,  indeed,  in  England  and  Scot- 
land there  are  large  numbers  of  Dissenters  who  have  avoided  entering  them 
all  their  lives  on  principle.  It  is  Americans  who  enjoy  them  most;  for  they 
see  in  them  a most  captivating  assemblage  of  novelties — vast  magnitude,  solid- 
ity of  structure  only  inferior  to  nature’s  own  work,  venerable  age,  harmonious 
and  solemn  magnificence — all  combined  in  an  edifice  which  can  not,  on  any 
principle  of  utility,  justify  its  existence,  and  does  not  pay  the  least  fraction  of 
its  expenses.  Little  do  they  know  personally  of  the  state  of  feeling  which 
made  successive  generations  of  human  beings  willing  to  live  in  hovels  and 
inhale  pollution  in  order  that  they  might  erect  those  wondrous  piles.  The  cost 
of  maintaining  them — of  which  cost  the  annual  expenditure  in  money  is  the 
least  important  part — does  not  come  home  to  us.  We  abandon  ourselves 
without  reserve  to  the  enjoyment  of  stupendous  works  wholly  new  to  our  ex- 
perience. 

It  is  Americans,  also,  who  are  most  bafiled  by  the  attempt  to  exjflain  the 
contradiction  between  the  noble  proportions  of  these  edifices  and  the  decora- 
tions upon  some  of  their  walls.  How  could  it  have  been,  w^e  ask  in  amaze- 
ment, that  minds  capable  of  conceiving  the  harmonies  of  these  fretted  roofs, 
these  majestic  colonnades,  these  symmetrical  towers,  could  also  have  permitted 


KELIGIOUS  CARICATURE  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


43 


their  surfaces  to  be  profaned  by  sculptures  so  absurd  and  so  abominable  that 
by  no  artifice  of  cir- 
cumlocution can  an 
idea  of  some  of  them 
be  conveyed  in  print- 
able words?  In  close 
proximity  to  statues 
of  the  Virgin,  and  in 
chapels  whose  every 
line  is  a line  of  beau- 
ty, we  know  not  how 
to  interpret  what  M. 

Champfleury  truly  styles  ‘‘  deviltries  and  obscenities  unnamable,  vice  and  pas- 
sion depicted  with  gross  brutality,  luxury  which  has  thrown  off  every  disguise, 
and  shows  itself  naked,  bestial,  and  shameless.”  And  these  mediaeval  artists 
availed  themselves  of  the  accumulated  buffooneries  and  monstrosities  of  all  the 
previous  ages.  The  gross  conceptions  of  India,  Egypt,  Greece,  and  Rome  ap- 
pear in  the  ornamentation  of  Christian  temples  along  with  shapes  hideous  or 
grotesque  which  may  have  been  original.  Even  the  oaken  stalls  in  which  the 
officiating  priests  rested  during  the  prolonged  ceremonials  of  festive  days  are 
in  many  cathedrals  covered  with  comic  carving,  some  of  which  is  pure  carica- 
ture. A rather  favorite  subject  was  the  one  shown  above,  a whipping-scene 
in  a school,  carved  upon  an  ancient  stall  in  an  English  cathedral. 

It  is  not  certain,  however,  that  the  artist  had  any  comic  intention  in  en- 
graving this  picture  of  retributive  justice,  with  which  the  children  of  former 
ages  were  so  familiar.  It  was  a standard  subject.  The  troops  of  Flemish 
carvers  who  roamed  over  Europe  in  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries,  offer- 
ing their  services  wherever  a church  was  to  be  decorated,  carried  with  them 
port-folios  of  stock  subjects,  of  which  this  was  one.  Other  carvings  are  unmis- 
takable caricatures:  a monk  caught  making  love  to  a nun,  a wife  beating  her 
husband,  an  aged  philosopher  ridden  by  a woman,  monkeys  wearing  bishops’ 
mitres,  barbers  drawing  teeth  in  ludicrous  attitudes,  and  others  less  describa- 

ble.  In  the  huge  cathe- 
dral of  English  Win- 
chester, which  abounds 
in  curious  relics  of  the 
Middle  Ages,  there  is  a 
series  of  painted  panels 
in  the  chapel  of  Our 
Lady,  one  of  which  is 
^ „ an  evident  caricature  of 

Feom  a Manubokipt  op  tub  Tuieteentu  Centtjey. 

the  devil.  He  is  hav- 
ing his  portrait  painted,  and  the  Virgin  Mary  is  near  the  artist,  urging  him  to 


44 


CAKICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


paint  him  blacker  and  uglier  than  usual.  The  devil  does  not  like  this,  and 
wears  an  expression  similar  to  that  of  a rogue  in  a modern  police  station  who 
objects  to  being  photographed.  Often,  however,  in  these  old  pictures  the 
devil  is  master  of  the  situation,  and  exhibits  contempt  for  his  adversaries  in 
indecorous  ways. 

If  we  turn  from  the  sacred  edifices  to  the  sacred  books  used  in  them — 
those  richly  illuminated  missals,  the  books  of  “ Hours,”  the  psalters,  and  other 
works  of  devotion — we  are  amazed  beyond  expression  to  discover  upon  their 
brilliant  pages  a similar  taste  in  ornamentation.  The  school  scene  on  the  pre- 
vious page,  in  which  monkey-headed  children  are  playing  school,  dates  back  to 
the  thirteenth  century. 

Burlesque  tournaments,  in  the  same  taste,  often  figure  in  the  prayer-books 
among  representations  of  the  Madonna,  the  crucifixion,  and  scenes  in  the  lives 
of  the  patriarchs.  The  gallant  hare  tilts  at  the  fierce  cock  of  the  barn-yard,  or 
sly  Reynard  parries  the  thrust  of  the  clumsy  bear. 

One  of  the  most  curious  relics  of  those  religious  centuries  is  a French 
prayer-book  preserved  in  the  British  Museum,  where  it  was  discovered  and 


described  by  Mr.  Malcolm,  one  of  the  first  persons  who  ever  attempted  to  elu- 
cidate the  subject  of  caricature.  Besides  the  “Hours  of  the  Blessed  Virgin,” 
it  contains  various  prayers  and  collects,  the  office  for  the  dead,  and  some 
psalms,  all  in  Latin.  It  is  illustrated  by  several  brilliantly  colored,  well-drawn, 
but  most  grotesque  and  incomprehensible  figures,  designed,  as  has  been  con- 
jectured, to  “ expose  the  wicked  and  inordinate  lives  of  the  clergy,  who  were 
hated  by  the  manuscript  writers  as  taking  away  much  of  their  business.”  This 
was  the  explanation  given  of  these  remarkable  pictures  to  the  trustees  of  the 
Museum  by  the  collector  of  whom  they  bought  the  volume.  Several  of  them 
are  submitted  to  the  reader’s  ingenuity  on  the  following  page. 

Besides  the  specimens  given,  there  is  a wolf  growling  at  a snake  twisting 
itself  round  its  hind-leg ; there  is  “ a grinning-match  ” between  a human  head 
on  an  animal’s  body  and  a boar’s  head  on  a monkey’s  body;  there  is  a creature 
like  a pea-hen,  with  two  bodies,  one  neck,  and  two  dogs’  heads ; there  is  an  ani- 
mal with  four  bodies  and  one  head ; there  is  a bearded  man’s  face  and  a wom- 
an’s on  one  neck,  and  the  body  has  no  limbs,  but  an  enormous  tail ; there  is  a 
turret,  on  the  top  of  which  a monkey  sits,  and  a savage  below  is  aiming  an  ar- 


EELIGIOUS  CARICATURE  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


45 


FEOii  A Fkenou  Prayek-book  of  the  Thirteenth  Century,  in  the  British  Museum. 


row  at  him.  In  the  British  Mnsenra — that  iinequaled  repository  of  all  that  is 
curious  and  rare — there  is  the  famous  and  splendid  psalter  of  Richard  II.,  con- 
taining many  strange  pictures  in  the  taste  of  the  period.  On  the  second  page, 
for  example,  along  with  two  pictures  of  the  kind  usual  in  Catholic  works  of 
devotion,  there  is  a third  which  represents  an  absurd  combat  within  lists  be- 
tween the  court-fool  and  the  court-giant.  The  fool,  who.  is  also  a dwarf,  is 
belaboring  the  giant  with  an  instrument  like  those  hollow  clubs  used  in  our 
pantomimes  when  the  clown  is  to  be  whacked  with  great  violence.  The 
giant  shrinks  from  the  blows,  and  the  king,  pointing  at  the  dwarf,  seems  to 
say,  Go  it,  little  one  ; I bet  upon  you."’'’ 

Mr.  Malcolm,  who  copied  this  picture  from  the  original,  where,  he  says,  it  is 
most  superbly  finished,  interprets  it  to  be  a caricature  of  the  famous  combat 
between  David  and  Goliath  in  the  presence  of  King  Saul  and  his  court.  In 
the  same  mass -book  there  is  a highly  ridiculous  representation  of  Jonah  on 


46 


CARICATUKE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


board  ship,  with  a blue  Boreas  with  cheeks  puffed  out  raising  the  tempest,  and 
a black  devil  clawing  the  sail  from  the  yard.  In  selecting  a few  of  the  more 
innocent  pictures  from  the  prayer-book  of  Queen  Mary,  daughter  of  Henry 
VIII.  of  England,  Mr.  Malcolm  gives  expression  to  his  amazement  at  the  char- 
acter of  the  drawings,  which  he  dared  not  exhibit  to  a British  public  ! Was 
this  book,  he  asks,  made  on  purpose  for  the  queen?  Was  it  a gift  or  a pur- 
chase ? But  whether  she  bought  or  whether  she  accepted  it,  he  thinks  she 
must  have  ‘^delighted  in  ludicrous  and  improper  ideas,”  or  else  ‘‘her  inclina- 


tion for  absurdity  and  caricature  conquered  even  her  religion,  in  defense  of 
which  she  spread  ruin  and  desolation  through  her  kingdom.” 

As  the  reader  has  now  before  his  eyes  a sufficient  number  of  specimens  of 
the  grotesque  ecclesiastical  ornamentation  of  the  period  under  consideration,  he 
is  prepared  to  consider  the  question  which  has  perplexed  so  many  students  be- 
sides Mr.  Malcolm:  How  are  we  to  account  for  these  indecencies  in  places  and 
books  consecrated  to  devotion?  A voice  from  the  Church  of  the  fifth  century 
gives  us  the  hint  of  the  true  answer.  “You  ask  me,”  writes  St.  Nilus  to 
Olympiodorus  of  Alexandria,  “ if  it  is  becoming  in  us  to  cover  the  walls  of 
the  sanctuary  with  representations  of  animals  of  all  kinds,  so  that  we  see  upon 
them  snares  set,  hares,  goats,  and  other  beasts  in  full  flight  before  hunters  ex- 
hausting themselves  in  taking  and  pursuing  them  with  their  dogs;  and,  again, 
upon  the  bank  of  a river,  all  kinds  of  fish  caught  by  fishermen.  I answer  you 
that  this  is  ^'puerility  with  which  to  amuse  the  eyes  of  the  faithfuir'^  To  one 
who  is  acquainted  with  the  history  and  genius  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church, 
this  very  simple  explanation  of  the  incongruity  is  sufficient.  The  policy  of 
that  wonderful  organization  in  every  age  has  been  to  make  every  possible  con- 
cession to  ignorance  that  is  compatible  with  the  continuance  of  ignorance.  It 


Quoted  in  Chiimpfleury,  p.  7,  from  “ Maxima  Bibliotheca  Patnim,”  vol.  xxvii.,  p.  323. 


RELIGIOUS  CARICATURE  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


47 


has  sought  always  to  amuse,  to  edify,  to  moralize,  and  console  ignorance,  but 
never  to  enlighten  it.  The  mind  that  planned  the  magnificent  cathedral  at 
Rheims,  of  which  Mr.  Tomes  was  so  much  enamored,  and  the  artists  who 
designed  the  glorious  San  Carlo  that  kindled  rapture  in  the  poetical  mind  of 
Mr.  Howells,  did  indeed  permit  the  scandalous  burlesques  that  disfigure  their 
walls;  but  they  only  permitted  them.  It  was  a concession  which  they  had  to 
grant  to  the  ignorant  multitude  whose  unquestioning  faith  alone  made  these 
enormous  structures  possible. 

We  touch  here  the  question  insinuated  by  Gibbon  in  his  first  volume, 
where  he  plainly  enough  intimates  his  belief  that  Christianity  was  a lapse  into 
barbarism  rather  than  a deliverance  from  it.  Plausible  arguments  in  the  same 
direction  have  been  frequently  made  since  Gibbon’s  time  by  comparing  the 
best  of  Roman  civilization  with  the  worst  of  the  self- torturing  monkery  of 
the  early  Christian  centuries.  In  a debate  on  this  subject  in  Hew  York  not 
long  since  between  a member  of  the  bar  and  a doctor  of  divinity,  both  of 
them  gentlemen  of  learning,  ability,  and  candor,  the  lawyer  pointed  to  the 
famous  picture  of  St.  Jerome  (a.d.  375),  naked,  grasping  a human  skull,  his 
magnificent  head  showing  vast  capacity  paralyzed  by  an  absorbing  terror,  and 
exclaimed,  “Behold  the  lapse  from  Virgil,  Horace,  Cicero,  Seneca,  the  Plinys, 
and  the  Antonines !”  The  answer  made  by  the  clergyman  was,  “ That  is  ?io( 
Christianity  ! In  the  Christian  books  no  hint  of  that,  no  utterance  justifying 
that,  can  be  found.”  Perhaps  neither  of  the  disputants  succeeded  in  express- 
ing the  whole  truth  on  this  point.  The  vaunted  Roman  civilization  was,  in 
truth,  only  a thin  crust  upon  the  surface  of  the  empire,  embracing  but  one 
small  class  in  each  province,  the  people  everywhere  being  ignorant  slaves. 
Into  that  inert  mass  of  servile  ignorance  Christianity  enters,  and  receives  from 
it  the  interpretation  which  ignorance  always  puts  upon  ideas  advanced  or  new, 
interpreting  it  as  hungry  French  peasants  in  1792  and  South  Carolina  negroes 
in  1870  interpreted  modern  ideas  of  human  rights.  The  new  leaven  set  the 
mass  heaving  and  swelling  until  the  crust  was  broken  to  pieces.  The  civiliza- 
tion of  Marcus  AurelHs  was  lost.  From  parchment  scrolls  poetry  and  philos- 
ophy were  obliterated,  that  the  sheets  might  be  used  for  prayers  and  medita- 
tions. The  system  of  which  St.  Jerome  was  the  product  and  representative 
was  a baleful  mixture,  of  which  nine -tenths  were  Hindoo  and  the  remaining 
tenth  was  half  Christian  and  half  Plato. 

The  true  inference  to  be  drawn  is  that  no  civilization  is  safe,  nor  even  gen- 
uine, until  it  embraces  all  classes  of  the  community;  and  the  promulgation  of 
Christianity  was  the  first  step  toward  that. 

As  the  centuries  wore  on,  the  best  of  the  clergy  grew  restive  under  this 
monstrous  style  of  ornamentation.  “What  purpose,”  wrote  St.  Bernard,- about 
A.D.  1140,  “serve  in  our  cloisters,  under  the  eyes  of  the  brothers  and  during 
their  pious  readings,  those  ridiculous  monstrosities,  those  prodigies  of  beauties 
deformed  or  deformities  made  beautiful?  Why  those  nasty  monkeys,  those 


48 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


furious  lions,  those  monstrous  centaurs,  those  animals  half  human,  those  spot- 
ted tigers,  those  soldiers  in  combat,  those  huntsmen  sounding  the  horn  ? Here 
a single  head  is  fitted  to  several  bodies ; there  upon  a single  body  there  are 
several  heads ; now  a quadruped  has  a serpent’s  tail,  and  now  a quadruped’s 
head  figures  upon  a fish’s  body.  Sometimes  it  is  a monster  with  the  fore 
parts  of  a horse  and  the  hinder  parts  of  a goat;  again  an  animal  with  horns 
ends  with  the  hind  quarters  of  a horse.  Everywhere  is  seen  a variety  of 
strange  forms,  so  numerous  and  so  odd  that  the  brothers  occupy  themselves 
more  in  deciphering  the  marbles  than  their  books,  and  pass  whole  days  in 
studying  all  those  figures  much  more  attentively  than  the  divine  law.  Great 
God ! if  you  are  not  ashamed  of  such  useless  things,  how,  at  least,  can  you 
avoid  regretting  the  enormity  of  their  cost?” 

How,  indeed  ! The  honest  abb6  was  far  from  seeing  the  symbolical  mean- 
ing in  those  odd  figures  which  modern  investigators  have  imagined.  He  was 
simply  ashamed  of  the  ecclesiastical  caricatures ; but  a century  or  two  later 
ingenious  writers  began  to  cover  them  with  the  fig-leaves  of  a symbolical  in- 
terpretation. According  to  the  ingenious  M.  Durand,  who  wrote  (a.d.  1459) 
thirty  years  before  Luther  was  born,  every  part  of  a cathedral  has  its  spiritual 
meaning.  The  stones  of  which  it  is  built  represent  the  faithful,  the  lime  that 
forms  part  of  the  cement  is  an  emblem  of  fervent  charity,  the  sand  mingled 
with  it  signifies  the  actions  undertaken  by  us  for  the  good  of  our  brethren, 
and  the  water  in  which  these  ingredients  blend  is  the  symbol  of  the  Holy 
Ghost.  The  hideous  shapes  sculptured  upon  the  portals  are,  of  course,  malign 
spirits  flying  from  the  temple  of  the  Lord,  and  seeking  refuge  in  the  very 
substance  of  the  icalls!  The  great  length  of  the  temple  signifies  the  tireless 
patience  with  which  the  faithful  support  the  ills  of  this  life  in  expectation  of 
their  celestial  home  ; its  breadth  symbolizes  that  large  and  noble  love  which 
embraces  both  the  friends  and  the  enemies  of  God ; its  height  typifies  the 
hope  of  final  pardon ; the  roof  beams  are  the  prelates,  who  by  the  labor  of 
preaching  exhibit  the  truth  in  all  its  clearness;  the  windows  are  the  Script- 
ures, which  receive  the  light  from  the  sun  of  truth,  and  keep  out  the  winds, 
snows,  and  hail  of  heresy  and  false  doctrine  devised  by  the  father  of  schism 
and  falsehood ; the  iron  bars  and  pins  that  sustain  the  windows  are  the  gen- 
eral councils,  ecumenical  and  orthodox,  which  have  sustained  the  holy  and 
canonical  Scriptures ; the  two  perpendicular  stone  columns  which  support  the 
windows  are  the  two  precepts  of  Christian  charity,  to  love  God  and  our  neigh- 
bor ; the  length  of  the  windows  shows  the  profundity  and  obscurity  of  Script- 
ure, and  their  roundness  indicates  that  the  Church  is  always  in  harmony  with 
itself. 

This  is  simple  enough.  But  M.  Jerome  Bugeaud,  in  his  collection  of 
“Chansons  Populaires”  of  the  western  provinces  of  France,  gives  part  of  a 
catechism  still  taught  to  children,  though  coming  down  from  the  Middle 
Ages,  which  carries  this  quaint  symbolizing  to  a point  of  the  highest  ab- 


RELIGIOUS  CARICATURE  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


49 


surdity.  The  catechism  turns  upon  the  sacred  character  of  the  lowly  animal 
that  most  needed  any  protection  which  priestly  ingenuity  could  afford.  Here 
are  a few  of  the  questions  and  answers : 

Priest.  What  signify  the  two  ears  of  the  ass?” 

Child.  “ The  two  ears  of  the  ass  signify  the  two  great  patron  saints  of  our 
city.” 

Priest.  What  signifies  the  head  of  the  ass?” 

Child.  ‘^The  head  of  the  ass  signifies  the  great  bell,  and  the  halter  the 
clapper  of  the  great  bell,  which  is  in  the  tower  of  the  cathedral  of  the  patron 
saints  of  our  city.” 

Priest.  What  signifies  the  ass’s  mouth  ?” 

Child.  ^^The  ass’s  mouth  signifies  the  great  door  of  the  cathedral  of  the 
patron  saints  of  our  city.” 

Priest.  ‘‘  What  signify  the  four  feet  of  the  ass  ?” 

Child.  ‘‘  The  four  feet  of  the  ass  signify  the  four  great  pillars  of  the  cathe- 
dral of  the  patron  saints  of  our  city.” 

Priest.  What  signifies  the  paunch  of  the  ass  ?” 

Child.  “ The  paunch  of  the  ass  signifies  the  great  chest  wherein  Christians 
put  tlieir  offerings  to  the  patron  saints  of  our  cathedral.” 

Priest.  “ What  signifies  the  tail  of  the  ass  ?” 

Child.  The  tail  of  the  ass  signifies  the  holy-water  brush  of  the  good  dean 
of  the  cathedral  of  the  patron  saints  of  our  city.” 

The  priest  does  not  stop  at  the  tail,  but  pursues  the  symbolism  with  a 
simplicity  and  innocence  which  do  not  bear  translating  into  our  blunt  English 
words.  As  late  as  1750  Bishop  Burnet  saw  in  a church  at  Worms  an  altar- 
piece  of  a crudity  almost  incredible.  It  represented  the  Virgin  Mary  throwing 
Christ  into  the  hopper  of  a windmill,  from  the  spout  of  which  he  was  issuing 
in  the  form  of  sacramental  wafers,  and  priests  were  about  to  distribute  them 
among  the  people.  The  unquestionable  purpose  of  this  picture  was  to  assist 
the  faith  and  animate  the  piety  of  the  people  of  Worms. 

4 


50 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

SECULAR  CARICATURE  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


IF  we  turn  from  the  sacred  to  the  secular,  we  find  the  ornamentation  not 
less  barbarous.  Many  readers  have  seen  the  two  giants  that  stand  in  the 
Guildhall  of  London,  where  they,  or  ugly  images  like  them,  have  stood  from 
time  immemorial.  A little  book  sold  near  by  used  to  inform  a credulous  pub- 
lic that  Gog  and  Magog  were  two  gigantic  brothers  taken  prisoners  in  Corn- 
wall fighting  against  the  Trojan  invaders,  who  brought  them  in  triumph  to  the 
site  of  London,  where  their  chief  chained  them  to  the  gate  of  his  palace  as  por- 
ters. But,  unfortunately  for  this  romantic  tale,  Mr.  Fairholt,  in  his  work  upon 
the  giants,*  makes  it  known  that  many  other  towns  and  cities  of  Europe  cher- 
ish from  a remote  antiquity  similar  images.  He  gives  pictures  of  the  Salisbury 
giant,  the  huge  helmeted  giant  in  Antwerp,  the  family  of  giants  at  Douai,  the 


“ Gog  and  Magog ; the  Giants  in  Gnildhall,”  by  E.W.  Fairholt,  F.S.  A.,  London,  1859. 


SECULAR  CARICATURE  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


51 


Head  of  the  Great  Dragon 
OF  Norwich. 


giant  and  giantess  of  Ath,  the  giants  of  Brussels,  as  well  as  of  the  mighty 
dragon  of  Norwich,  with  practicable  iron  jaw. 

We  may  therefore  discard  learned  theories  and 
sage  conjectures  concerning  Gog  and  Magog,  and  at- 
tribute them  to  the  poverty  of  invention  and  the  bar- 
barity of  taste  which  prevailed  in  the  ages  of  faith. 

One  of  the  subjects  most  frequently  chosen  for 
caricature  during  this  period  was  that  cunning  and 
audacious  enemy  of  God  and  man,  the  devil — a com- 
posite being,  made  up  of  the  Satan  who  tested  Job, 
the  devil  who  tempted  Jesus,  and  the  Egyptain  Osi- 
ris who  weighed  souls  in  the  balance,  and  claimed  as 
his  own  those  found  wanting.  Tlie  theory  of  the  universe  then  generally  ac- 
cepted was  that  the  world  was  merely  a field  of  strife  between  God  and  this 
malignant  spirit;  on  the  side  of  God  were  ranged  archangels,  angels,  the 
countless  host  of  celestial  beings,  and  all  the  saints  on  earth  and  in  heaven, 
while  on  the  devil’s  side  were  a vast  army  of  fallen  spirits  and  all  the  de- 
praved portion  of  the  human  race.  The  simple  souls  of  that  period  did  not 
accept  this  explanation  in  an  allegorical  sense,  but  as  the  most  literal  statement 
of  facts  familiarly  known,  concerning  which  no  one  in  Christendom  had  any 
doubt  whatever.  The  devil  was  as  composite  in  his  external  form  as  he 

was  in  his  traditional  character.  All 

the  mythologies  appear  to  have  con- 
tributed something  to  his  make-up, 
until  he  had  acquired  many  of  the 
most  repulsive  features  and  members 
of  which  animated  nature  gives  the 
suggestion.  He  was  hairy,  hoofed, 
and  horned ; he  had  a forked  tail ; he 
had  a countenance  which  expressed 
the  fox’s  cunning,  the  serpent’s  mal- 
ice, the  pig’s  appetite,  the  monkey’s 
grin.  As  to  his  body,  it  varied  ac- 
cording to  the  design  of  the  artist, 
but  it  usually  resembled  creatures 
base  or  loathsome. 

In  one  picture  there  is  a very 
rude  but  curious  representation  of  the 
weighing  of  souls,  superintended  by 
the  devil  and  an  archangel.  The  dev- 
il, in  the  form  of  a hog,  has  won  a 
. prize  in  the  soul  of  a wicked  woman, 

SODES  WEIGHED  IN  THE  BaLANOE.  (BaS-ie.lel  uf  LllC  , _ _ _ ’ 

Autun  Cathedral.)  which  he  is  Carrying  off  in  a highly 


52 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


disrespectful  manner,  while  casting  a backward  glance  to  see  that  he  has  fair 
play  in  the  next  weighing.  This  was  an  exceedingly  favorite  subject  with  the 
artists  of  the  eleventh  and  twelfth  centuries.  They  delighted  to  picture  the 


Struggle  for  the  Possession  of  a Soul  between  Angel  and  Devil.  (From  a Psalter,  1300.) 


SECULAR  CARICATURE  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


53 


devil,  in  their  crude  uncompromising  way,  as  an  insatiate  miser  of  human  souls, 
eager  to  seize  them,  demanding  a thousand,  a million,  a billion,  all ; and  when 
one  appeared  in  the  scales  so  void  of  guilt  that  the  good  angel  must  needs  pos- 
sess it,  he  may  be  seen  slyly  putting  a finger  upon  the  opposite  scale  to  weigh 
it  down,  and  this  sometimes  in  spite  of  the  angel’s  remonstrance.  In  one  pict- 
ure, described  by  M.  Merimee  in  his  ‘^Voyage  en  Auvergne,”  the  devil  plays 
this  trick  at  a moment  when  the  archangel  Michael  has  turned  to  look  an- 
other way. 

It  is  a strange  circumstance  that  in  a large  number  of  these  representations 
the  devil  is  exhibited  triumphant,  and  in  others  the  victory  is  at  least  doubt- 
ful. In  a splendid  psalter  preserved  in  the  British  Museum  there  is  a large 
picture  (an  engraving  of  which  is  given  on  the  preceding  page)  of  a soul 
climbing  an  extremely  steep  and  high  mountain,  on  the  summit  of  which  a 
winged  archangel  stands  with  outstretched  arms  to  receive  him.  The  soul 
has  nearly  reached  the  top ; another  step  will  bring  him  within  the  archangel’s 
reach ; but  behind  him  is  the  devil  with  a long  three-pronged  clawing  instru- 
ment, which  he  is  about  to  thrust  into  the  hair  of  the  ascending  saint;  and  no 
man  can  tell  which  is ’to  finally  have  that  soul,  the  angel  or  the  devil.  M. 
Champfieury  describes  a capital  in  a French  church  which  represents  one  of 
the  minions  of  the  devil  carrying  a lizard,  symbol  of  evil,  which  he  is  about  to 
add  to  the  scale  containing  the  sins;  and  the  spectator  is  left  to  infer  that 


Lost  Souls  oast  into  Hell.  (From  Queen  Mary’s  Psalter.) 


fraud  of  this  kind  is  likely  to  be  successful,  for  underneath  is  written,  ^^Ecce 
Diaholus  E It  is  as  if  the  artist  had  said,  “ Such  is  the  devil,  and  this  is  one 
of  his  modes  of  entrapping  his  natural  prey  of  human  souls  !”  From  a large 
number  of  similar  pictures  the  inference  is  fair  that,  let  a man  lead  a spotless 
life  from  the  cradle  to  the  grave,  the  devil,  by  a mere  trick,  may  get  his  soul  at 
last.  Some  of  the  artists  might  be  suspected  of  sympathizing  with  the  devil 
in  his  triumphs  over  the  weakness  of  man.  Observe,  for  example,  the  comic 
exuberance  of  the  above  picture,  in  which  devils  are  seen  tumbling  their  im- 
mortal booty  into  the  jaws  of  perdition. 


54 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


It  is  difficult  to  look  at  this  picture  without  feeling  that  the  artist  must 
have  been  alive  to  the  humors  of  the  situation.  It  is,  however,  the  opinion  of 
students  of  these  quaint  relics  that  the  authors  of  such  designs  honestly  in- 
tended to  excite  horror,  not  hilarity.  Queen  Mary  probably  saw  in  this  pict- 
ure, as  she  turned  the  page  of  her  sumptuous  psalter,  an  argument  to  inflame 
her  bloody  zeal  for  the  ancient  faith.  In  the  writings  of  some  of  the  early 
fathers  we  observe  the  same  appearance  of  joyous  exultation  at  the  suffer- 
ings of  the  lost,  if  not  a sense  of  the  comic  absurdity  of  their  doom.  Read- 
ers may  remember  the  passage  from  Tertullian  (a.d.  200)  quoted  so  effectively 
by  Gibbon : 

‘‘^You  are  fond  of  all  spectacles,”  exclaims  this  truly  ferocious  Christian; 
“expect  the  greatest  of  all  spectacles,  the  last  and  eternal  judgment  of  the  uni- 
verse. How  shall  I rejoice,  how  laugh,  how  exult,  when  I behold  so  many 
proud  monarchs  and  fancied  gods  groaning  in  the  lowest  abyss  of  darkness; 
so  many  magistrates  who  persecuted  the  name  of  the  Lord  liquefying  in 
fiercer  fires  than  they  ever  kindled  against  Christians;  so  many  sage  philoso- 
phers blushing  in  red-hot  flames  with  their  deluded  scholars;  so  many  cele- 


Devilb  seizing  lUEiii  Peey.  (Bas-relief  on  the  Portal  of  a Church  at  Troyes.) 


brated  poets  trembling  before  the  tribunal;  so  many  tragedians  more  tuneful 
in  the  expression  of  their  own  sufferings;  so  many  dancers — ” 

This  is  assuredly  not  the  utterance  of  compassion,  but  rather  of  the  fierce 
delight  of  an  unregenerate  Roman,  when  at  the  amphitheatre  he  doomed  a 
rival’s  defeated  gladiator  to  death  by  pointing  downward  with  his  thumb.  In 
a similar  spirit  such  pictures  were  conceived  as  the  one  given  above. 

The  sculptor,  it  is  apparent,  is  “with”  the  adversary  of  mankind  in  the 
present  case.  Kings  and  bishops  carried  things  with  a high  hand  during  their 
mortal  career,  but  the  devils  have  them  .at  last  with  a rope  round  their  necks, 
crown  and  mitre  notwithstanding ! 


SECULAR  CARICATURE  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


55 


The  devil  was  not  always  victor.  There  was  One  whom  neither  his  low 
cunning  nor  his  bland  address  nor  his  blunt  audacity  could  beguile — the  Son 
of  God,  his  predestined  conqueror.  The  passages  in  the  Gospels  which  relate 
the  attempts  made  by  Satan  to  tempt  the  Lord  furnished  congenial  subjects  to 
the  illuminators  of  the  Middle  Ages,  and  they  treated  those  subjects  wdth  their 
usual  enormous  crudity.  In  one  very  ancient  Saxon  psalter,  in  manuscript, 
preserved  at  the  British  Museum,  there  is  a colossal  Christ,  with  one  foot  upon 
a devil,  the  other  foot  about  to  fall  upon  a second  devil,  and  with  his  hands 
delivering  from  the  open  mouth  of  a third  devil  human  souls,  who  hold  up  to 
him  their  hands  clasped  as  in  prayer.  In  this  picture  the  sympathies  of  the 
artist  are  evidently  not  on  the  side  of  the  evil  spirits.  Their  malevolence  is 
apparent,  and  their  attitude  is  ignominious.  The  rescued  souls  are,  indeed,  a 
pigmy  crew,  of  woe-begone  aspect;  but  their  resistless  Deliverer  towers  aloft 
in  such  imposing  altitude  that  the  tallest  of  the  saints  hardly  reaches  above 
his  knees.  In  another  picture  of  very  early  date,  the  Lord  upon  a high  place 
is  rescuing  a soul  from  three  scoffing  devils,  who  are  endeavoring  to  pull  him 
down  to  perdition  by  cords  twisted  round  his  legs.  This  soul  we  are  permit- 
ted to  consider  safe ; but  below,  in  a cor- 
ner of  the  spacious  drawing,  a winged 
archangel  is  spearing  a lost  soul  into  the 
flames  of  hell,  using  the  spear  in  the  man- 
ner of  a farmer  handling  a pitchfork. 

These  ancient  attempts  to  exhibit  the 
endless  conflict  between  good  and  evil 
are  too  rude  even  to  be  interesting.  The 
specimen  annexed,  of  later  date,  about 
1475,  occurs  in  a Poor  People’s  Bible 
{JBiblia  Pcmpermii)^  block -printed,  in 
which  it  forms  part  of  an  extensive 
frontispiece.  The  book  was  once  the 
property  of  George  III.,  at  the  sale  of 
whose  personal  effects  it  was  bought  for 
the  British  Museum,  where  it  now  is.  It 
has  the  additional  interest  of  being  one 
of  the  oldest  specimens  of  wood-engraving 
yet  discovered. 

The  mountain  in  the  background, 
adorned  by  a single  tree,  is  the  height  to 
which  the  Lord  was  taken  by  the  tempter,  and  from  which  the  devil  urged  him 
to  cast  himself  down. 

A very  frequent  object  of  caricature  during  the  ages  when  terror  ruled  the 
minds  of  men  was  human  life  itself — its  brevity,  its  uncertainty,  and  the  ab- 
surd, ill-timed  suddenness  with  which  inexorable  death  sometimes  cuts  it  short. 


56 


CAKICATUEE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


Herodotus  records  that  at  the  banquets  of  the  Egyptians  it  was  customary  for 
a person  to  carry  about  the  table  the  figure  of  a corpse  lying  upon  a coffin,  and 
to  cry  out,  Behold  this  image  of  what  yourselves  shall  be;  therefore  eat, 
drink,  and  be  merry.”  There  are  traces  of  a similar  custom  in  the  records  of 
other  ancient  nations,  among  whom  it  was  regarded  as  a self-evident  truth  that 
the  shortness  of  life  was  a reason  for  making  the  most  of  it  while  it  lasted. 
And  their  notion  of  making  the  most  of  it  was  to  get  from  it  the  greatest 
amount  of  pleasure.  This  vulgar  scheme  of  existence  vanished  at  the  pro- 
mulgation of  the  doctrine  that  the  condition  of  every  soul  was  fixed  unaltera- 
bly at  the  moment  of  its  severance  from  the  body,  or,  at  best,  after  a short 
period  of  purgation,  and  that  the  only  way  to  avoid  unending  anguish  was  to 
do  what  the  Church  commanded  and  to  avoid  what  the  Church  forbade.  Ter- 
ror from  that  time  ruled  Christendom.  Terror  covered  the  earth  with  ecclesi- 
astical structures,  gave  the  Church  a tenth  of  all  revenues  and  two-fifths  of  all 
property.  By  every  possible  device  death  was  clothed  with  new  and  vivid 
terrors,  and  in  every  possible  way  the  truth  was  brought  home  to  the  mind 
that  the  coming  of  death  could  be  as  unexpected  as  it  was  inevitable  and  un- 
welcome. The  tolling  of  the  church-bell  spread  the  gloom  of  the  death-cham- 
ber over  the  whole  town;  and  the 
death-crier,  with  bell  and  lantern,  wear- 
ing a garment  made  terrible  by  a skull 
and  cross-bones,  went  his  rounds,  by 
day  or  night,  crying  to  all  good  people 
to  pray  for  the  soul  just  departed.* 
These  criers  did  not  cease  to  per- 
ambulate the  streets  of  Paris  until 
about  the  year  1690,  and  M.  Langlois 
informs  us  that  in  remote  provinces  of 
France  their  doleful  cry  was  heard  as 
recently  as  1850. 

Blessed  gift  of  humor ! Against 
the  most  complicated  and  effective  ap- 
paratus of  terror  ever  contrived,  woi-k- 
ed  by  the  most  powerful  organization 
that  ever  existed,  the  sense  of  the  ludi- 
crous asserted  itself,  and  saved  the  human  mind  from  being  crushed  down 
into  abject  and  hopeless  idiocy.  The  readers  of  “Don  Quixote”  can  not  have 
forgotten  the  colloquy  in  the  highway  between  the  Knight  of  the  Sorrowful 
Countenance  and  the  head  of  the  company  of  strollers. 

“ ‘ Sir,’  replied  the  Devil,  politely,  stopping  his  cart,  “ we  are  the  actors  of 
the  company  of  the  Evil  Spirit.  This  morning,  which  is  the  octave  of  Corpus 


Fkencu  JJeath-ckiek— “ Pkay  fok  tub  Soul  just 

DEPAKTEO.’- 


* “Essai  sur  les  Dances  des  Morts,”  vol.  i.,  p.  151,  par  E.  H.  Langlois,  Paris,  1852. 


SECULAR  CARICATURE  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


57 


Christi,  we  have  represented  the  play  of  the  Empire  of  Death.  This  young 
man  played  Death,  and  this  one  an  Angel.  This  woman,  who  is  the  wife  of 
the  author  of  the  comedy,  is  the  Queen.  Over  there  is  one  who  played  the 
part  of  an  Emperor,  and  the  other  man  that  of  a Soldier.  As  to  myself,  I am 
the  Devil,  at  your  service,  and  one  of  the  principal  actors.’  ” 

For  centuries  the  comedy  of  Death  was  a standard  play  at  high  festivals, 
the  main  interest  being  the  rude,  sudden  interruption  of  human  lives  and 
joys  and  schemes  by  the  grim  messenger.  Art  adopted  the  theme,  and  the 
Dance  of  Death  began  to  figure  among  the  decorations  of  ecclesiastical  struct- 
ures and  on  the  vellum  of  il- 
luminated prayer-books.  No 
sculptor  but  executed  his  Dance 
of  Death ; no  painter  but  tried 
his  skill  upon  it;  and  by  whom- 
soever the  subject  was  treated, 
the  element  of  humor  was  sel- 
dom wanting. 

So  numerous  are  the  pict- 
ures and  series  of  pictures  us- 
ually styled  Dances  of  Death, 
that  a descriptive  catalogue  of 
them  would  fill  the  space  as- 
signed to  this  chapter;  and  the 
literature  to  which  they  have 
given  rise  forms  an  important 
class  of  the  works  relating  to 
the  Middle  Ages.  Two  phases 
of  the  subject  were  especially 
atti’active  to  artists.  One  was 
the  impartiality  of  Death,  noted 
by  Horace  in  the  familiar  pas- 
sage ; and  the  other  the  incongruity  between  the  summons  to  depart  and  the 
condition  of  the  person  summoned.  When  these  two  aspects  of  the  subject 
had  become  hackneyed,  artists  pleased  themselves  sometimes  with  a treat- 
ment precisely  the  opposite,  and  represented  Death  dancing  gayly  away  with 
the  most  battered,  ancient,  and  forlorn  of  human  kind,  who  had  least  reason  to 
love  life,  but  did  not  the  less  shrink  from  the  skeleton’s  icy  touch.  Every  one 
feels  the  comic  absurdity  of  gay  and  sprightly  Death  hurrying  oft  to  the  tomb 
a cripple  as  dilapidated  as  the  one  in  the  picture  above.  In  another  engraving 
we  see  Death,  with  exaggerated  courtesy,  handing  to  an  open  tomb  an  extreme- 
ly old  man  just  able  to  totter. 

Another  subject  in  the  same  series  is  Death  dragging  at  the  garment  of 
a peddler,  who  is  so  heavily  laden  as  he  trudges  along  the  highway  that  one 


Death  and  tue  Cripple. 


58 


CARICATUKE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


would  imagine  even  the  rest  of  the  grave  welcome.  But  the  peddler,  too, 

makes  a very  wry  face  when  he  recognizes  who 
it  is  that  has  interrupted  his  weary  tramp. 
The  triumphant  gayety  of  Death  in  this  picture 
is  in  humorous  contrast  with  the  lugubrious  ex- 
pression on  the  countenance  of  his  victim. 

In  other  series  we  have  Death  dressed  as  a 
beau  seizing  a young  maiden.  Death  taking  from 
a house-maid  her  broom.  Death  laying  hold  of  a 
washer-woman,  Death  taking  apples  from  an  ap- 
ple-stand, Death  beckoning  away  a bar -maid. 
Death  summoning  a female  mourner  at  a funeral, 
and  Death  plundering  a tinker’s  basket.  Death, 
standing  in  a grave,  pulls  the  grave-digger  in  by 
the  leg;  seated  on  a plow,  he  seizes  the  farmer; 
with  an  ale-pot  at  his  back,  he  throttles  an  inn- 
keeper who  is  adulterating  his  liquors;  he  strikes  with  a bone  the  irksome 
chain  of  matrimony,  and  thus  sets  free  a couple  bound  by  it;  he  mows  down  a 
philosopher  holding  a clock ; upon  a miser  who  has  thrust  his  body  deep  down 
into  a massive  chest  he  shuts  the  heavy  lid;  he  shows  himself  in  the  mirror  in 
which  a young  beauty  is  looking;  to  a philosopher  seated  in  his  study  he  enters 
and  presents  an  hour-glass.  A pope  on  his  throne  is  crowning  an  emperor 
kneeling  at  his  feet,  with  princes,  cardinals,  and  bishops  in  attendance,  when  a 
Death  appears  at  his  side,  and  another  in  his  retinue  dressed  as  a cardinal. 
Death  lays  his  hand  upon  an  emperor’s  crown  at  the  moment  when  he  is  doing 
justice  to  a poor  man  against  a rich;  but  in  another  picture  of  the  same  series. 
Death  seizes  a duke  while  he  is  disdainfully  turning  from  a poor  woman  with 
her  child  who  has  asked  alms  of  him.  The  dignitaries  of  the  Church  were  not 


SECULAR  CARICATURE  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


59 


spared.  Fat  abbots,  gorgeous  cardinals,  and  vehement  preachers  all  figure  in 
these  series  in  circumstances  of  honor  and  of  dishonor.  In  most  of  them  the 
person  summoned  yields  to  King  Death  without  a struggle ; but  in  one  a 
knight  makes  a furious  resistance,  laying  about  him  with  a broadsword  most 
energetically.  It  is  of  no  avail.  Death  runs  him  through  the  body  with  his 
own  lance,  though  in  the  other  picture  the  weapon  in  Death’s  hand  was  only  a 
long  thigh-bone. 

Mr.  Longfellow,  in  his  “ Golden  Legend,”  has  availed  himself  of  the  Dance 
of  Death  painted  on  the  walls  of  the  covered  bridge  at  Lucerne  to  give  natural- 
ness and  charm  to  the  conversation  of  Elsie  and  Prince  Henry  while  they  are 
crossing  the  river.  The  strange  pictures  excite  the  curiosity  of  Elsie,  and  the 
Prince  explains  them  to  her  as  they  walk : 

Elsie.  What  is  this  picture? 

‘•‘‘Prince.  It  is  a yoimg  man  singing  to  a nun, 

Who  kneels  at  her  devotions,  but  in  kneeling 
Turns  round  to  look  at  him  ; and  Death  meanwhile 
Is  putting  out  the  candles  on  the  altar ! 

‘•^•Elsie.  Ah,  Avhat  a pity  ’tis  that  she  should  listen 
Unto  such  songs,  when  in  her  orisons 
She  might  have  heard  in  heaven  the  angels  singing ! 

‘•‘•Prince.  Here  he  has  stolen  a jester’s  cap  and  bells, 

And  dances  with  the  queen. 

‘•‘■Elsie.  A foolish  jest ! 

‘•‘•Prince.  And  here  the  heart  of  the  new-wedded  wife. 

Coming  from  church  with  her  beloved  lord, 

He  startles  with  the  rattle  of  his  drum. 

‘•‘Elsie.  Ah,  that  is  sad!  And  yet  perhaps  ’tis  best 
That  she  should  die  with  all  the  sunshine  on  her 
And  all  the  benedictions  of  the  morning. 

Before  this  affluence  of  golden  light 
Shall  fade  into  a cold  and  clouded  gray. 

Then  into  darkness! 

“ Prince.  Under  it  is  written, 

‘Nothing  but  death  shall  separate  thee  and  me!’ 

“•Elsie.  And  what  is  this  that  follows  close  upon  it? 

. “Prince.  Death  playing  on  a dulcimer.” 

And  so  the  lovers  converse  on  the  bridge,  all  covered  from  end  to  end  with 
these  caricatures  of  human  existence,  until  the  girl  hurries  with  affright  from 
what  she  calls  “ this  great  picture-gallery  of  death.” 

Tournaments  were  among  the  usual  subjects  of  caricature  during  the  cent- 
ury or  two  preceding  the  Reformation.  Some  specimens  have  already  been 
given  from  the  illuminated  prayer-books  (pp.  44,  46).  The  device,  however, 
seldom  rises  above  the  ancient  one  of  investing  animals  with  the  gifts  and 
qualities  of  men.  Monkeys  mounted  upon  the  backs  of  dogs  tilt  at  one  an- 
other with  long  lances,  or  monsters  utterly  nondescript  charge  upon  other  mon- 
sters more  ridiculous  than  themselves. 


60 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


All  the  ordinary  foibles  of  human  nature  received  attention.  These  never 
change.  There  are  always  gluttons,  misers,  and  spendthrifts.  There  are  al- 
ways weak  men  and  vain  women.  There  are  always  husbands  whose  wives 
deceive  and  worry  them,  as  there  are  always  wives  whom  husbands  worry  and 
deceive ; and  the  artists  of  the  Middle  Ages,  in  their  own  direct  rude  fashion, 
turned  both  into  caricature.  The  mere  list  of  subjects  treated  in  Brandt’s 
‘‘Ship  of  Fools,”  written  when  Luther  was  a school -boy,  shows  us  that  men 
were  men  and  women  were  women  in  1490.  That  quaint  reformer  of  manners 
dealt  mild  rebuke  to  men  who  gathered  great  store  of  books  and  put  them  to 
no  good  use ; to  women  who  were  ever  changing  the  fashion  of  their  dress;  to 
men  who  began  to  build  without  counting  the  cost;  to  “great  borrowers  and 
slack  payers;”  to  fools  “who  will  serve  two  lords  both  together;”  to  them 
who  correct  others  while  themselves  are  “ culpable  in  the  same  fault ;”  to 
“fools  who  can  not  keep  secret  their  own  counsel;”  to  people  who  believe  in 
“ predestinacyon ;”  to  men  who  attend  closely  to  other  people’s  business,  leav- 
ing their  own  undone ; to  “ old  folks  that  give  example  of  vice  to  youth ;”  and 

so  on  through  the  long  catalogue  of 
human  follies.  His  homely  and  wise 
ditties  are  illustrated  by  pictures  of  cu- 
rious simplicity.  Observe  the  one  sub- 
joined, in  which  “a  foule”  is  weigh- 
ing the  transitory  things  of  this  world 
against  things  everlasting,  one  being 
represented  by  a scale  full  of  castles 
and  towers,  and  the  other  by  a scale 
full  of  stars  — the  earthly  castles  out- 
weighing the  heavenly  bodies  in  the 
balance  of  this  “ foule.” 

One  of  the  quaint  poems  of  the 
gentle  priest  descants  upon  the  bad 
behavior  of  people  at  church.  This 
poem  has  an  historical  interest,  for  it 
throws  light  upon  the  manners  of  the 
time,  over  which  poetry,  tradition,  and 
romance  have  thrown  a very  delusive 
charm.  We  learn  from  it  that  while 
the  Christian  people  of  Europe  were 
on  their  knees  praying  in  church  they  were  liable  to  be  disturbed  by  the 
“mad  noise  and  shout”  of  a loitering  crowd;  by  knights  coming  in  from  the 
field,  falcon  upon  wrist,  with  their  dogs  yelping  at  their  heels ; by  men  chaf- 
fering and  bargaining  as  they  walked  up  and  down;  by  the  wanton  laughter 
of  girls  ogled  by  young  men ; by  lawyers  conferring  with  clients ; and  by  all 
the  usual  noises  of  a crowd  at  a fair.  The  author  wonders 


SECULAR  CARICATURE  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


61 


“ That  the  false  paynyms  within  theyr  Temples  be 
To  theyr  ydols  moche  more  devout  than  we.” 

The  worthy  Brandt  was  not  the  only  satirist  of  Church  manners.  The 
‘^Usurer’s  Paternoster,”  given  by  M.  Champfleury,  is  more  incisive  than 
Brandt’s  amiable  remonstrance.  The  usurer,  hurrying  away  to  church,  tells 
his  wife  that  if  any  one  comes  to  borrow  money  while  he  is  gone,  some  one 
must  be  sent  in  all  haste  for  him.  On  his  way  he  says  his  paternoster  thus  : 

‘‘Our  Father.  Blessed  Lord  God  [Beau  Sire  Dieu],  be  favorable  to  me, 
and  give  me  grace  to  prosper  exceedingly.  Let  me  become  the  richest  money- 
lender in  the  world.  Who  art  in  heaven.  I am  sorry  I wasn’t  at  home  the 
day  that  woman  came  to  borrow.  Really  I am  a fool  to  go  to  church,  where  I 
can  gain  nothing.  Hallowed  he  thy  name.  It’s  too  bad  I have  a servant  so 
expert  in  pilfering  my  money.  Thy  kingdom  come.  I have  a mind  to  go 
home  to  see  what  my  wife  is  about.  I’ll  bet  she  sells  a chicken  while  I am 
away,  and  keeps  the  money.  Thy  will  he  done.  It  pops  into  my  mind  that 
the  chevalier  who  owed  me  fifty  francs  paid  me  only  half.  In  heaven.  Those 
damned  Jews  do  a rushing  business  in  lending  to  every  one.  I should  like 
very  much  to  do  as  they  do.  As  on  earth.  The  king  plagues  me  to  death  in 
raising  taxes  so  often.” 

Arrived  at  church,  the  money-lender  goes  through  part  of  the  service  as 
best  he  may;  but  as  soon  as  sermon  time  comes,  off  he  goes,  saying  to  him- 
self, ‘‘’I  must  get  away  home:  the  priest  is  going  to  preach  a sermon  to  draw 
money  out  of  our  purses.”  Doubtless  the  priest  in  those  times  of  ignorance 
had  to  deal  with  many  most  profane  and  unspiritual  people,  who  could  only  be 
restrained  by  fear,  and  to  whose  ‘‘puerility”  much  had  to  be  conceded.  In 
touching  upon  the  Church  manners  of  the  Middle  Ages,  M.  Champfleury  makes 
a remark  that  startles  a Protestant  mind  accustomed  only  to  the  most  exact 
decorum  in  churches.  “Old  men  of  to -day  (1850),  he  says,  speaking  of 
France,  “will  recall  to  mind  the  gayety  of  the  midnight  masses,  when  buffoons 
from  the  country  waited  impatiently  to  send  down  showers  of  small  torpedoes 
upon  the  pavement  of  the  nave,  to  barricade  the  alcoves  with  mountains  of 
chairs,  to  fill  with  ink  the  holy-water  basins,  and  to  steal  kisses  in  out-of-the- 
way  corners  from  girls  who  would  not  give  them.”  These  proceedings,  which 
M.  Champfleury  styles  “ the  pleasantries  of  our  fathers,”  were  among  the  con- 
cessions made  by  a worldly-wise  old  Church  to  the  “ puerility  ” of  the  people, 
or  rather  to  the  absolute  necessity  of  occasional  hilarious  fun  to  healthy  ex- 
istence. 

Amusing  and  even  valuable  caricatures  six  and  seven  centuries  old  have 
been  discovered  upon  parchment  documents  in  the  English  record  offices,  exe-* 
cuted  apparently  by  idle  clerks  for  their  amusement  when  they  had  nothing 
else  to  do.  One  of  these,  copied  by  Mr.  Wright,  gives  us  the  popular  English 
conception  of  an  Irish  warrior  of  the  thirteenth  century. 


62 


CAEICATUEE.  AND  COMIC  AET. 


The  broad-axes  of  the  Irish  were  held  in  great  terror  by  the  English.  An 
historian  of  Edward  I.’s  time,  while  discoursing  on  that 
supreme  perplexity  of  British  kings  and  ministers,  how 
Ireland  should  be  governed  after  being  quite  reduced  to 
subjection,  expresses  the  opinion  that  the  Irish  ought  not 
to  be  allowed  in  time  of  peace  to  use  “ that  detestable  in- 
strument of  destruction  which  by  an  ancient  but  accursed 
custom  they  constantly  carry  in  their  hands  instead  of  a 
staff.”  The  modern  Irish  shillalah,  then,  is  only  the  resid- 
uum of  the  ancient  Irish  broad -axe  — the  broad -axe  with 
its  head  taken  off.  The  humanized  Irishman  of  to-day  is 
content  with  the  handle  of  “the  detestable  instrument.” 
Other  pen-and-ink  sketches  of  England’s  dreaded  foes,  the 
Irish  and  the  Welsh,  have  been  found  upon  ancient  vellum 
rolls,  but  none  better  than  the  specimen  given  has  yet  been 
copied. 

The  last  object  of  caricature  which  can  be  mentioned  in 
the  present  chapter  is  the  Jew — the  odious  Jew — accursed  by  the  clergy  as  a 
Jew,  despised  by  good  citizens  as  a usurer,  and  dreaded  by  many  a profligate 
Christian  as  the  holder  of  mortgages  upon  his  estate.  When  the  ruling  class 
of  a country  loses  its  hold  upon  virtue,  becomes  profuse  in  expenditure,  ceases 
to  comply  with  natural  law,  comes  to  regard  licentious  living  as  something  to 
be  expected  of  young  blood,  and  makes  a jest  of  a decorous  and  moral  conver- 
sation, then  there  is  usually  in  that  country  a less  refined,  stronger  class,  who 
do  comply  with  natural  law,  who  do  live  in  that  virtuous,  frugal,  and  orderly 
manner  by  which  alone  families  can  be  perpetuated  and  states  established.  In 
several  communities  during  the  centuries  preceding  the  Reformation,  when  the 
nobles  and  great  merchants  wasted  their  substance  in  riotous  living  or  in  in- 
sensate pilgrimages  and  crusades,  the  Jew  was  the  virtuous,  sensible,  and  solv- 
ent man.  He  did  not  escape  the  evil  influence  wrought  into  the  texture  of  the 
character  by  living  in  an  atmosphere  of  hatred  and  contempt,  nor  the  narrow- 
ness of  mind  caused  by  his  being  excluded  from  all  the  more  generous  and 
high  avocations.  But  he  remained  through  all  those  dismal  ages  temperate, 
chaste,  industrious,  and  saving,  as  well  as  heroically  faithful  to  the  best  light 
on  high  things  that  he  had.  Hence  he  always  had  money  to  lend,  and  he  could 
only  lend  it  to  men  who  were  too  glad  to  think  he  had  no  rights  which  they 
were  bound  to  respect. 

The  caricature  on  the  next  page  was  also  discovered  upon  a vellum  roll  in 
the  Public  Record  Office  in  London,  the  work  of  some  idle  clerk  642  years  ago, 
and  recently  transferred  to  an  English  work*  of  much  interest,  in  which  it 
serves  as  a frontispiece. 


English  Caricature 
OF  AN  Irishman, 
A.H.  12S0. 


* “ History  of  Crime  in  England,”  vol.  i.,  by  Luke  Owen  Pike,  London,  1873. 


SECULAR  CARICATURE  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


63 


Caeioatuue  of  the  Jews  in  England,  a.d.  1233. 


The  ridicule  is  aimed  at  the  famous  Jew,  Isaac  of  INorwich,  a rich  money- 
lender and  merchant,  to  whom  abbots,  bishops,  and  wealthy  vicars  were  heav- 
ily indebted.  At  Norwich  he  had  a wharf  at  which  his  vessels  could  receive 
and  discharge  their  freights,  and  whole  districts  were  mortgaged  to  him  at 
once.  He  lent  money  to  the  king’s  exchequer.  He  was  the  Rothschild  of  his 
day.  In  the  picture,  which  represents  the  outside  of  a castle — his  own  castle, 
wrested  from  some  lavish  Christian  by  a money-lender’s  wiles — the  Jew  Isaac 
stands  above  all  the  other  figures,  and  is  blessed  with  four  faces  and  a crown, 
which  imply,  as  Mr.  Pike  conjectures,  that,  let  him  look  whichever,  way  he  will, 
he  beholds  possessions  over  which  he  holds  kingly  sway.  Lower  down,  and 
nearer  the  centre,  are  Mosse  Mokke,  another  Jewish  money-lender  of  Norwich, 
and  Madame  Avegay,  one  of  many  Jewesses  who  lent  money,  between  whom  is 
a horned  devil  pointing  to  their  noses.  The  Jewish  nose  was  a peculiarly 
offensive  feature  to  Christians,  and  was  usually  exaggerated  by  caricaturists. 
The  figure  holding  up  scales  heaped  with  coin  is,  so  far  as  we  can  guess,  mere- 
ly a taunt ; and  the  seating  of  Dagon,  the  god  of  the  Philistines,  upon  the  tur- 
ret seems  to  be  an  intimation  that  the  Jews,  in  their  dispersion,  had  abandoned 
the  God  of  their  fathers,  and  taken  up  with  the  deity  of  his  inveterate  foes. 

So  far  as  the  records  of  those  ages  disclose,  there  was  no  one  enlightened 
enough  to  judge  the  long-suffering  Jews  with  just  allowance.  Luther’s  aver- 
sion to  them  was  morbid  and  violent.  He  confesses,  in  his  Table-talk,  that  if 
it  had  fallen  to  his  lot  to  have  much  to  do  with  Jews,  his  patience  would  have 
given  way ; and  when,  one  day.  Dr.  Menius  asked  him  how  a Jew  ought  to  be 
baptized,  he  replied,  You  must  fill  a large  tub  with  water,  and,  having  divested 
a Jew  of  his  clothes,  cover  him  with  a white  garment.  He  must  then  sit  down 
in  the  tub,  and  you  must  baptize  him  quite  under  the  water.”  He  said  further 
to  Dr.  Menius  that  if  a Jew,  not  converted  at  heart,  were  to  ask  baptism  at  his 
hands,  he  would  take  him  to  the  bridge,  tie  a stone  round  his  neck,  and  hurl 
him  into  the  river,  such  an  obstinate  and  scoffing  race  were  they.  If  Luther 
felt  thus  toward  them,  we  can  not  wonder  that  the  luxurious  dignitaries  of  the 
Church,  two  centuries  before  his  time,  should  have  had  qualms  of  conscience 
with  regard  to  paying  Isaac  of  Norwich  interest  upon  money  borrowed. 


64 


CAKICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

CARICATURES  PRECEDING  THE  REFORMATION. 

WE  have  in  this  strange,  rude  picture*  a device  of  contemporary  carica- 
ture to  cast  ridicule  upon  the  movement  of  which  Martin  Luther  was 

the  conspicuous  figure.  It  is  reduced 
from  a large  wood-cut  which  appeared 
in  Germany  at  the  crisis  of  the  lion- 
hearted  reformer’s  career,  the  year  of 
his  appearance  at  the  Diet  of  Worms, 
when  he  said  to  dissuading  friends, 
“ If  I knew  there  were  as  many  devils 
at  Worms  as  there  are  tiles  upon  the 
houses,  I would  go.”  The  intention 
of  the  artist  is  obvious ; but,  in  addi- 
tion to  the  leading  purpose,  he  desired, 
as  Mr.  Chatto  conjectures,  to  remind 
his  public  of  the  nasal  drawl  of  the 
preaching  friars  of  the  time,  for  which 
they  were  as  proverbial  as  the  Puri- 
tans of  London  in  Cromwell’s  day. 
Such  is  the  poverty  of  human  inven- 
tion that  the  idea  of  this  caricature  has 
been  employed  several  times  since  Lu- 
ther’s time  — even  as  recently  as  1873,  when  a London  draughtsman  made  it 
serve  his  turn  in  the  contentions  of  party  politics. 

The  best  humorous  talent  of  Christendom,  whether  it  wrought  with  pencil 
or  with  pen,  wliether  it  avowed  or  veiled  its  sympathy  with  reform,  was  on 
Luther’s  side.  It  prepared  the  way  for  his  coming,  co-operated  with  him  dur- 
ing his  life-time,  carried  on  his  work  after  he  was  gone,  and  continues  it  to  the 
present  hour. 

Recent  investigators  tell  us,  indeed,  that  the  Reformation  began  in  laughter, 
which  the  Church  itself  nourished  and  sanctioned.  M.  Viollet-le-Duc,  author 
of  the  Dictionnaire  d’Architecture,”  discourses  upon  the  gradual  change 


* From  “A  Treatise  on  Wood-engraving,”  p.  268,  by  Jackson  and  Chatto,  London,  1866. 


CARICATURES  PRECEDING  THE  REFORMATION. 


65 


which  church  decorators  of  the  Middle  Ages  effected  in  the  figure  of  the  devil. 
Upon  edifices  erected  before  the  year  1000  there  are  few  traces  of  the  devil, 
and  upon  those  of  much  earlier  date  none  at  all;  but  from  the  eleventh  cent- 
ury he  begins  to  play  an  important  role^'‘  artists  striving  which  should  give 
him  the  most  hideous  form.  No  one  was  then  audacious  enough  to  take  liber- 
ties with  a being  so  potent,  so  awful,  so  real,  the  competitor  and  antagonist  of 
the  Almighty  Lord  of  Heaven  and  Earth.  But  mortals  must  laugh,  and  famil- 
iarity produces  its  well-known  effect.  In  the  eyes  of  men  of  the  world  the 
devil  became  gradually  less  terrible  and  more  grotesque,  became  occasionally 
ridiculous,  often  contemptible,  sometimes  silly.  His  tricks  are  met  by  tricks 
more  cunning  than  his  own ; he  is  duped,  and  retires  discomfited.  Before 
Luther  appeared  on  the  scene,  the  painters  and  sculptors,  not  to  mention  the 
authors  and  poets,  had  made  progress  in  reducing  the  devil  from  the  grade  of 
an  antagonist  of  deity  and  arch-enemy  of  men  to  that  of  a cunning  and  amus- 
ing deceiver  of  simpletons.  ‘‘The  great  devil,”  as  the  author  just  mentioned 
remarks,  “sculptured  over  the  door  of  the  Autun  Cathedral  in  the  twelfth 
century  is  a frightful  being,  well  designed  to  strike  terror  to  unformed  souls ; 
but  the  young  devils  carved  in  bas-reliefs  of  the  fifteenth  century  are  more 
comic  than  terrible,  and  it  is  evident  that  the  artists  who  executed  them  cared 
very  little  for  the  wicked  tricks  of  the  Evil  Spirit.”  We  may  be  sure  that  the 
artist  who  could  sketch  the  devil  fiddling  upon  a pair  of  bel- 
lows with  a kitchen  dipper  had  outgrown  the  horror  which 
that  personage  had  once  excited  in  all  minds.  Such  a sketch 
is  here  reproduced  from  a Flemish  MS.  in  the  library  of  Cam- 
brai. 

But  this  could  not  be  said  of  the  great  mass  of  Christian 
people  for  centuries  after.  Luther,  as  the  reader  is  aware, 
speaks  of  the  devil  with  as  absolute  an  assurance  of  his  ex- 
istence, activity,  and  nearness  as  if  he  were  a member  of  his 
own  household.  God,  he  once  said,  mocks  and  scorns  the 
devil  by  putting  under  his  nose  such  a weak  creature  as  man ; and  at  other 
times  he  dwelt  upon  the  hardness  of  the  conflict  which  the  devil  has  to  main- 
tain. “ It  were  not  good  for  us  to  know  how  earnestly  the  holy  angels  strive 
for  us  against  the  devil,  or  how  hard  a combat  it  is.  If  we  could  see  for  how 
many  angels  one  devil  makes  work,  we  should  be  in  despair.”  Many  devils, 
he  remarks  with  curious  certainty,  are  in  forests,  in  waters,  in  wildernesses,  in 
dark  pooly  places,  ready  to  hurt  and  prejudice  people;  and  there  are  some  in 
the  thick  black  clouds,  which  cause  hail,  lightnings,  and  thunderings,  and  poi- 
son the  air,  the  pastures,  and  grounds.  He  derides  the  philosophers  and  phy- 
sicians who  say  that  these  things  have  merely  natural  causes ; and  as  to  the 
witches  who  torment  honest  people,  and  spoil  their  eggs,  milk,  and  butter,  “ I 
should  have  no  compassion  upon  them — I would  burn  them  all.”  The  Table- 
talk  of  the  great  reformer  is  full  of  such  robust  credulity. 

5 


66 


CARICATUEE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


Luther  represented,  as  much  as  he  reformed,  his  age  and  country.  In  these 
utterances  of  his  we  discern  the  spirit  against  which  the  humor  and  gayety  of 
art  had  to  contend,  and  over  which  it  has  gained  a tardy  victory,  not  yet  com- 
plete. Let  us  keep  in  mind  also  that  in  those  twilight  ages,  as  in  all  ages, 
there  were  the  two  contending  influences  which  we  now  call  “ the  world  ” and 
the  church.”  In  other  words,  there  were  people  who  took  the  devil  light- 
ly, as  they  did  all  invisible  and  spiritual  things,  and  there  were  people  who 
dreaded  the  devil  in  every  “ dark  pooly  place,”  and  to  whom  nothing  could 
be  a jest  which  appertained  to  him.  Humorous  art  has  in  it  healing  and  ad- 
monition for  both  these  classes. 

It  was  in  those  centuries,  also,  that  men  of  the  world  learned  to  laugh  at 
the  clergy,  and,  again,  not  without  clerical  encouragement.  In  the  brilliantly 
illuminated  religious  manuscripts  of  the  two  centuries  preceding  Luther,  along 
with  other  ludicrous  and  absurd  images,  of  which  specimens  have  been  given, 
we  find  many  pictures  in  which  the  vices  of  the  religious  orders  are  exhibited. 
The  oldest  drawing  in  the  British  Museum,  one  of  the  only  two  that  bear  the 
date  1320,  shows  us  two  devils  tossing  a monk  headlong  from  a bridge  into  a 


Oldest  Drawing  in  the  Beitisii  Museum,  a.d.  1320. 


rough  and  rapid  river,  an  act  which  they  perform  in  a manner  not  calculated 
to  excite  serious  thought  in  modern  minds. 

In  the  old  Strasburg  Cathedral  there  was  a brass  door,  made  in  1545,  upon 
which  was  engraved  a convent  with  a procession  of  monks  issuing  from  it 
bearing  the  cross  and  banners.  The  foremost  figure  of  this  procession  was  a 
monk  carrying  a girl  upon  his  shoulders.  This  was  not  the  coarse  fling  of  an 
enemy.  It  was  not  the  scoff  of  an  Erasmus,  who  said  once,  ‘‘These  paunchy 
monks  are  called  fathers^  and  they  take  good  care  to  deserve  the  name.”  It 
was  engraved  on  the  eternal  brass  of  a religious  edifice  for  the  warning  and 
edification  of  the  faithful. 

Nothing  more  surprises  the  modern  reader  than  the  frequency  and  severity 


CAKICATURES  PRECEDING  THE  REFORMATION. 


67 


with  which  the  clergy  of  those  centuries  were  denounced  and  satirized,  as  well 
by  themselves  as  by  others.  A Church  which  showed  itself  sensitive  to  the 
least  taint  of  what  it  deemed  heresy  appears  to  have  beheld  with  indifference 
the  exhibition  of  its  moral  delinquencies — nay,  taken  the  lead  in  exposing  them. 
It  was  a clergyman  who  said,  in  the  Council  of  Siena,  fifty  years  before  Luther 
was  born : ‘‘We  see  to-day  priests  who  are  usurers,  wine-shop  keepers,  mer- 
chants, governors  of  castles,  notaries,  stewards,  and  debauch  brokers.  The 
only  trade  which  they  have  not  yet  commenced  is  that  of  executioner.  The 
bishops  surpass  Epicurus  himself  in  sensuality,  and  it  is  between  the  courses 
of  a banquet  that  they  discuss  the  authority  of  the  Pope  and  that  of  the  Coun- 
cil.” The  same  speaker  related  that  St.  Bridget,  being  in  St.  Peter’s  at  Rome, 
looked  up  in  a religious  ecstasy,  and  saw  the  nave  filled  with  mitred  hogs. 
She  asked  the  Lord  to  explain  this  fantastic  vision.  “These,”  replied  the 
Lord,  “ are  the  bishops  and  abbes  of  to-day.”  M.  Champfleury,  the  first  living 
authority  on  subjects  of  this  nature,  declares  that  the  manuscript  Bibles  of  the 
century  preceding  Luther  are  so  filled  with  pictures  exhibiting  monks  and 
nuns  in  equivocal  circumstances  that  he  was  only  puzzled  to  decide  which 
specimens  were  most  suitable  to  give  his  readers  an  adequate  idea  of  them. 

From  mere  gayety  of  heart,  from  the  exuberant  jollity  of  a well-beneficed 
scholar,  whose  future  was  secure  and  whose  time  was  all  his  own,  some  of  the 
higher  clergy  appear  to  have  jested  upon  themselves  and  their  office.  Two 
finely  engraved  seals  have  been  found  in  France,  one  dating  as  far  back  as 
1300,  which  represent  monkeys  arrayed  in  the  vest- 
ments of  a Church  dignitary.  Upon  one  of  them 
the  monkey  wears  the  hood  and  holds  the  staff  of  an 
abbot,  and  upon  the  other  the  animal  appears  in  the 
character  of  a bishop. 

One  of  these  seals  is  known  to  have  been  executed 
at  the  express  order  of  an  abbot.  The  other,  a copy 
of  which  is  given  here,  was  found  in  the  ruins  of  an 
ancient  chateau  of  Picardy,  and  bears  the  inscription, 

“le:  scel:  de:  leuecque:  de:  la:  cyte:  de:  pi- 
NON  ” — “ The  seal  of  the  bishop  of  the  city  of  Pinon.” 

This  interesting  relic  was  at  first  thought  to  be  the 
work  of  some  scoffing  Huguenot,  but  there  can  now 
be  no  doubt  of  its  having  been  the  merry  conceit  of 
the  personage  whose  title  it  bears.  The  discovery 
of  the  record  relating  to  the  monkey  seal  of  the  abbot,  showing  it  to  have  been 
ordered  and  paid  for  by  the  actual  head  of  a great  monastery,  throws  light 
upon  all  the  grotesque  ornamentation  of  those  centuries.  It  suggests  to  us 
also  the  idea  that  the  clergy  joined  in  the  general  ridicule  of  their  order  as 
much  from  a sense  of  the  ludicrous  as  from  conviction  of  its  justice.  In  the 
British  Museum  there  is  a religious  manuscript  of  the  thirteenth  century. 


68 


CAKICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


splendidly  illuminated,  one  of  the  initial  letters  of  which  represents  a young 
friar  drawing  wine  from  a cask  in  a cellar,  that  contains  several  humorous 
points.  With  his  left  hand  he  holds  the  great  wine-jug,  into  which  the  liquid 
is  running  from  the  barrel ; with  his  right  he  lifts  to  his  lips  a bowlful  of  the 
wine,  and  from  the  same  hand  dangle  the  large  keys  of  the  cellar.  If  this  was 
intended  as  a hint  to  the  younger  brethren  how  they  ought  not  to  behave 
when  sent  to  the  cellar  for  wine,  the  artist  evidently  felt  also  the  comic  ab- 
surdity of  the  situation. 

The  vast  cellars  still  to  be  seen  under  ancient  monasteries  and  priories,  as 
well  as  the  kitchens,  not  less  spacious,  and  supported  by  archways  of  the  most 
massive  masonry,  tell  a tale  of  the  habits  of  the  religious  orders  which  is 
abundantly  confirmed  in  the  records  and  literature  of  the  time.  “ Capuchins,” 
says  the  old  French  doggerel,  ‘‘  drink  poorly,  Benedictines  deeply,  Dominicans 
pint  after  pint,  but  Franciscans  drink  the  cellar  dry.”  The  great  number  of 
old  taverns  in  Europe  named  the  Mitre,  the  Church,  the  Chapel-bell,  St.  Dom- 
inic, and  other  ecclesiastical  names,  point  to  the  conclusion  that  the  class 
that  professed  to  dispense  good  cheer  for  the  soul  was  not  averse  to  good 
cheer  for  the  body.* 

If  the  clergy  led  the  merriment  caused  by  their  own  excesses,  we  can  not 
wonder  they  should  have  had  many  followers.  In  the  popular  tales  of  the 
time,  which  have  been  gathered  and  made  accessible  in  recent  years,  we  find 
the  priest,  the  monk,  the  nun,  the  abbot,  often  figuring  in  absurd  situations, 
rarely  in  creditable  ones.  The  priest  seems  to  have  been  regarded  as  the  sat- 
irist’s fair  game,  the  common  butt  of  the  jester.  In  one  of  these  stories  a 
butcher,  returning  home  from  a fair,  asks  a night’s  lodging  at  the  house  of  a 
priest,  who  churlishly  refuses  it.  The  butcher,  returning,  offers  in  recompense 
to  kill  one  of  his  fine  fat  sheep  for  supper,  and  to  leave  behind  him  all  the 
meat  not  eaten.  On  this  condition  he  is  received,  and  the  family  enjoy  an 
excellent  supper  in  his  society.  After  supper  he  wins  the  favor  first  of  the 
priest’s  concubine  and  afterward  of  the  maid-servant  by  secretly  promising  to 
each  of  them  the  skin  of  the  sheep.  In  the  morning,  after  he  has  gone,  a pro- 
digious uproar  arises,  the  priest  and  the  two  women  each  vehemently  claiming 
the  skin,  in  the  midst  of  which  it  is  discovered  that  the  butcher  had  stolen  the 
sheep  from  the  priest’s  own  flock. 

From  a merry  tale  of  these  ages  a jest  was  taken  which  to-day  forms  one 
of  the  stock  dialogues  of  our  negro-minstrel  bands.  The  story  was  apparently 
designed  to  show  the  sorry  stuff  of  which  priests  were  sometimes  made.  A 
farmer  sends  a lout  of  a son  to  college,  intending  to  make  a priest  of  him,  and 
the  lad  was  examined  as  to  the  extent  of  his  knowledge.  “Isaac  had  two  sons, 
Esau  and  Jacob,”  said  the  examiner:  “who  was  Jacob’s  father?”  The  candi- 
date, being  unable  to  answer  this  question,  is  sent  home  to  his  tutor  with  a let- 


“ History  of  Sign-boards,”  p.  319,  by  Larwood  and  Hotten,  London. 


CARICATURES  PRECEDING  THE  REFORMATION. 


69 


ter  relating  his  discomfiture.  Thou  foole  and  ass-head  !”  exclaims  the  tutor. 
“Dost  thou  not  know  Tom  Miller  of  Oseney?”  “Yes,”  answered  the  hope- 
ful scholar.  “Then  thou  knowest  he  had  two  sons,  Tom  and  Jacke:  who  is 
Jacke’s  father?”  “Tom  Miller.”  Back  goes  the  youth  to  college  with  a let- 
ter to  the  examiner,  who,  for  the  tutor’s  sake,  gives  him  another  chance,  and 
asks  once  more  who  was  Jacob’s  father.  “ Marry  1”  cries  the  candidate,  “I 
can  tell  you  now : that  was  Tom  Miller  of  Oseney.” 

We  must  be  cautious  in  drawing  inferences  from  the  popular  literature  of 
a period,  since  there  is  in  the  unformed  mind  a propensity  to  circulate  amusing 
scandal,  and  the  satirist  is  apt  to  aim  his  shaft  at  characters  and  actions  which 
are  exceptional,  not  representative.  In  some  of  the  less  frequented  nooks  of 
Europe,  w^here  the  tone  of  mind  among  the  people  has  not  materially  changed 
since  the  fifteenth  century,  we  still  find  priests  the  constant  theme  of  scandal. 
The  Tyrolese,  for  example,  as  some  readers  may  have  observed,  are  profuse  in 
their  votive  offerings,  and  indefatigable  in  their  pilgrimages,  processions,  and 
observances — the  most  superstitious  people  in  Europe;  but  a recent  writer 
tells  us  that  they  “ have  a large  collection  of  anecdotes,  humorous  and  scandal- 
ous, about  their  priests,  and  they  take  infinite  delight  in  telling  them.”  They 
are  not  pious,  as  the  writer  remarks,  “ but  magpious.”  The  Tyrolese  may 
judge  their  priests  correctly,  but  a person  who  believes  in  magpious  humbug 
may  be  expected  to  lend  greedy  ears  to  comic  scandal,  and  what  the  Tyrolese 
do  to-day,  their  ancestors  may  have  done  when  Luther  was  a school-boy. 

But  of  late  years  the  exact,  methodical  records  of  the  past,  the  laws,  law- 
books, and  trials,  which  are  now  recognized  to  be  among  the  most  trustworthy 
guides  to  a correct  interpretation  of  antiquity,  have  been  diligently  scrutinized, 
and  we  learn  from  them  that  it  was  among  the  commonest  of  criminal  events 
for  clergymen,  in  the  time  of  Edward  III.  of  England,  to  take  part  in  acts  of 
brigandage.  A band  of  fifty  men,  for  example,  broke  into  the  park  and  war- 
ren of  a lady,  the  Countess  of  Lincoln,  killed  her  game,  cut  down  two  thousand 
pounds’  worth  of  timber,  and  carried  it  off.  In  the  list  of  the  accused  are  the 
names  of  two  abbots  and  a prior.  Several  chaplains  were  in  a band  of  knights 
and  squires  who  entered  an  inclosure  belonging  to  the  Archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury, drove  off  his  cattle,  cut  down  his  trees,  harvested  his  wheat,  and  marched 
away  with  their  booty.  In  a band  of  seventy  who  committed  a similar  out- 
rage at  Carlton  there  were  five  parsons.  Two  parsons  were  accused  of  assist- 
ing to  break  into  the  Earl  of  NTorthampton’s  park  and  driving  off  his  cattle. 
The  prior  of  Bollington  was  charged  with  a robbery  of  horses,  cattle,  sheep, 
and  pigs.  Five  clergymen  were  in  the  band  that  damaged  the  Bishop  of  Dur- 
ham’s park  to  the  extent  of  a thousand  pounds.  These  examples  and  others 
were  drawn  from  a single  roll  of  parchment  of  the  year  1348;  and  that  roll, 
itself  one  of  three,  is  only  one  of  many  sources  of  information.  The  author  of 
the  “History  of  Crime”  explains  that  the  rolls  of  that  year  consist  of  more 
than  one  hundred  and  twenty  skins  of  parchment,  among  which  there  are  few 


VO 


CARICATUEE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


that  do  not  contain  a reference  to  some  lawless  act  committed  by  knights  or 
priests,  or  by  a band  consisting  of  both.* 

This  is  record,  not  gossip,  not  literature ; and  it  may  serve  to  indicate  the 
basis  of  truth  there  was  for  the  countless  allusions  to  the  dissoluteness  of  the 
clergy  in  the  popular  writings  and  pictures  of  the  century  that  formed  Luther 
and  the  Lutherans. 

It  is  scarcely  possible  in  the  compass  of  a chapter  to  convey  an  idea  of  the 
burst  of  laughter  that  broke  the  long  spell  of  superstitious  terror,  and  opened 
the  minds  of  men  to  receive  the  better  light.  Such  works  as  the  “Decam- 
eron ” of  Boccaccio,  which  to  modern  readers  is  only  interesting  as  showing 
what  indecency  could  be  read  and  uttered  by  fine  ladies  and  gentlemen  on  a 
picnic  in  1350,  had  one  character  that  harmonized  with  the  new  infiuence. 
Their  tone  was  utterly  at  variance  with  the  voice  of  the  priest.  The  clergy, 
self-indulgent,  preached  self-denial;  practicing  vice,  they  exaggerated  human 
guilt.  But  the  ladies  and  gentlemen  of  the  “Decameron,”  while  practicing 
virtue,  made  light  of  vice,  and  brought  off  the  graceful  profligate  victorious. 

Later  was  circulated  in  every  land  and 
tongue  the  merry  tale  of  “ Reynard  the 
Fox,”  which  children  still  cherish  among 
the  choicest  of  their  literary  treasures. 
Reynard,  who  appears  in  the  sculptures 
of  so  many  convents  and  in  the  illumi- 
nations of  so  many  pious  manuscripts, 
whom  monks  loved  better  than  their 
missal,  exhibits  the  same  moral:  wit- 
ty wickedness  triumphant  over  brute 
strength.  The  fox  cheats  the  wolf,  de- 
ludes the  bear,  lies  to  King  Lion,  turns 
monk,  gallops  headlong  up  and  down 
the  commandments,  only  to  be  at  last 
Pastor  and  Flook.  (From  the  Window  of  a French  jjjto  the  highest  faVOr  by  the  king 

and  made  Prime  Minister.  It  is  not 
necessary  to  discover  allegory  in  this  tale.  What  made  it  potent  against  the 
spell  of  priestly  influence  was  the  innocent  and  boisterous  merriment  which  it 
excited,  amidst  which  the  gloom  evoked  by  priestly  arts  began  to  break  away. 
Innocent  mirth,  next  to  immortal  truth,  is  the  thing  most  hostile  to  whatever 
is  mingled  with  religion  which  is  hostile  to  the  interests  of  human  nature. 

And  “Reynard,”  we  must  remember,  was  only  the  best  and  gayest  of  a large 
class  of  similar  fables  that  circulated  during  the  childhood  of  Columbus  and  of 
Luther.  In  one  of  the  Latin  stories  given  by  Mr.  Wright  in  his  “Selection,” 
we  have  an  account  of  the  death  and  burial  of  the  wolf,  the  hero  of  the  tale. 


* “History  of  Crime  in  England,”  p.  248,  by  L.  O.  Pike,  London,  1873, 


CARICATURES  PRECEDING  THE  REFORMATION. 


71 


which  makes  a most  profane  use  of  sacred  objects  and  rites,  though  it  was 
written  by  a priest.  The  holy  water  was  carried  by  the  hare,  hedgehogs  bore 
the  candles,  goats  rang  the  bell,  moles  dug  the  grave,  foxes  carried  the  bier, 
the  bear  celebrated  mass,  the  ox  read  the  gospel,  and  the  ass  the  epistle. 
When  the  burial  was  complete,  the  animals  sat  down  to  a splendid  banquet, 
and  wished  for  another  grand  funeral.  Mark  the  moral  drawn  by  the  priestly 
author : “ So  it  frequently  happens  that  when  some  rich  man,  an  extortionist  or 
a usurer,  dies,  the  abbot  or  prior  of  a convent  of  beasts  [i.  6.,  of  men  living  like 
beasts]  causes  them  to  assemble.  For  it  commonly  happens  that  in  a great 
convent  of  black  or  white  monks  [Benedictines  or  Augustinians]  there  are 
none  but  beasts — lions  by  their  pride,  foxes  by  their  craftiness,  bears  by  their 
voracity,  stinking  goats  by  their  incontinence,  asses  by  their  sluggishness, 
hedgehogs  by  their  asperity,  hares  by  their  timidity  (because  they  were  cow- 
ardly when  there  was  no  fear),  and  oxen  by  their  laborious  cultivation  of  their 
land.”  Unquestionably  this  author  belonged  to  another  order  than  those 
named  in  his  tirade. 

A book  with  original  life  in  it  becomes  usually  the  progenitor  of  a line  of 
books.  Brandt’s  “ Ship  of  Fools,”  which  was  published  when  Luther  was 
eleven  years  old,  gave  rise  to  a literature.  As  soon  as  it  appeared  it  kindled 
the  zeal  of  a noted  preacher  of  Strasburg,  Jacob  Geiler  by  name,  who  turned 
Brandt’s  gentle  satire’  into  fierce  invective,  which  he  directed  chiefly  against 
the  monks.  The  black  friars,  he  said,  were  the  devil,  the  white  friars  his 
dame,  and  the  others  were  their  chickens.  The  qualities  of  a good  monk,  he 
declared,  were  an  almighty  belly,  an  ass’s  back,  and  a raven’s  mouth.  From 
the  pulpit,  on  another  occasion,  he  foretold  a coming  reformation  in  the 
Church,  adding  that  he  did  not  expect  to  live  to  see  it,  though  some  that 
heard  him  might.  The  monks  taunted  him  with  looking  into  the  “Ship  of 
P''ools”  for  his  texts  instead  of  the  Scripture;  but  the  people  heard  him  ea- 
gerly, and  one  of  his  pupils  gave  the  public  a series  of  his  homely,  biting  ser- 
mons, illustrated  by  wood-cuts,  which  ran  through  edition  after  edition.  Ba- 
dius,  a noted  scholar  of  the  time,  was  another  who  imitated  the  Ship  of 
Fools,”  in  a series  of  satirical  pieces  entitled  “The  Boats  of  Foolish  Women,” 
in  which  the  follies  of  the  ladies  of  the  period  were  ridiculed. 

Among  the  great  number  of  works  which  the  “Ship  of  Fools”  suggested, 
there  was  one  which  directly  and  powerfully  prepared  the  way  for  Luther. 
Erasmus,  while  residing  in  England,  from  1497  to  1506,  Luther  being  still  a 
student,  read  Brandt’s  work,  and  was  stirred  by  it  to  write  his  “ Praise  of 
Folly,”  which,  under  the  most  transparent  disguise,  is  chiefly  a satire  upon  the 
ecclesiastics  of  the  day.  We  may  at  least  say  that  it  is  only  in  the  passages 
aimed  at  them  that  the  author  is  at  his  best.  Before  Luther  had  begun  to 
think  of  the  abuses  of  the  Church,  Erasmus,  in  his  little  work,  derided  the 
credulous  Christians  who  thought  to  escape  mishaps  all  day  by  paying  devo- 
tion to  St.  Christopher  in  the  morning,  and  laughed  at  the  soldiers  who  ex- 


V2 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


pected  to  come  out  of  battle  with  a 
whole  skin  if  they  had  but  taken  the 
precaution  to  ‘‘  mumble  over  a set 
prayer  before  the  picture  of  St.  Bar- 
bara.” He  jested  upon  the  English 
who  had  constructed  a gigantic  figure 
of  their  patron  saint  as  large  as  the 
images  of  Hercules;  only  the  saint 
was  mounted  upon  a horse  “ very  glo- 
riously accoutred,”  which  the  people 
scarcely  refrained  from  worshiping. 
But  observe  this  passage  in  the  very 
spirit  of  Luther,  though  written  fif- 
teen years  before  the  reformer  public- 
ly denounced  indulgences : 

“ What  shall  I say  of  such  as  cry 
up  and  maintain  the  cheat  of  pardons 
and  indulgences?  who  by  these  com- 
pute the  time  of  each  soul’s  residence 
in  purgatory,  and  assign  them  a long- 
er or  shorter  continuance,  according 
as  they  purchase  more  or  fewer  of 
these  paltry  pardons  and  salable  ex- 
emptions?. . . . By  this  easy  way  of 
purchasing  pardon, any  notorious  high- 
wayman, any  plundering  soldier,  or 
any  bribe-taking  judge  shall  disburse 
some  part  of  their  unjust  gains,  and  so 
think  all  their  grossest  impieties  suf- 
ficiently atoned  for And  what 

can  be  more  ridiculous  than  for  some 
others  to  be  confident  of  going  to 
heaven  by  repeating  daily  those  seven 
verses  out  of  the  Psalms?” 

These  ‘‘fooleries,”  which  Erasmus 
calls  most  gross  and  absurd,  he  says 
are  practiced  not  merely  by  the  vul- 
gar, but  by  “ such  proficients  in  relig- 
ion as  one  might  well  expect  should 
have  more  wit.”  He  ridicules  the 
notion  of  each  country  and  place  be- 
ing under  the  special  protection  of  a 
patron  saint,  as  well  as  the  kindred 


CARICATURES  PRECEDING  THE  REFORMATION. 


73 


absurdity  of  calling  upon  one  saint  to 
store  lost  goods,  upon  another  to  pro- 
tect seamen,  and  upon  another  to  guard 
cows  and  sheep.  ISTor  does  he  refrain 
from  reflecting  upon  the  homage  paid 
to  the  Virgin  Mary,  “ whose  blind  de- 
votees think  it  manners  now  to  place 
the  mother  before  the  Son.”  He  ut- 
terly scouts  and  reviles  the  folly  of 
hanging  up  offerings  at  the  shrines 
of  saints  for  their  imaginary  aid  in 
getting  the  donors  out  of  trouble  or 
danger.  The  responsibility  of  all  this 
folly  and  delusion  he  boldly  assigns  to 
the  priests,  who  gain  money  by  them. 
“They  blacken  the  darkness  and  pro- 
mote the  delusion,  wisely  foreseeing 
that  the  people  (like  cows  which  never 
give  down  their  milk  so  well  as  when 
they  are  gently  stroked)  would  part 
with  less  if  they  knew  more.”  If  any 
serious  and  wise  man,  he  adds,  should 
tell  the  people  that  a pious  life  is  the 
only  way  of  securing  a peaceful  death, 
that  repentance  and  amendment  alone 
can  procure  pardon,  and  that  the  best 
devotion  to  a saint  is  to  imitate  his 
example,  there  wmuld  be  a very  differ- 
ent estimate  put  upon  masses,  fastings, 
and  other  austerities.  Erasmus  saw 
this  prophecy  fulfilled  before  many 
years  had  rolled  over  his  head. 

It  is,  however,  in  his  chapters  upon 
the  amazingly  ridiculous  subtleties  of 
the  monastic  theology  of  his  time  that 
Erasmus  gives  us  his  most  exquisite 
fooling.  Here  he  becomes,  indeed,  the 
merry  Erasmus  who  was  so  welcome  at 
English  Cambridge,  at  Paris,  at  Rome, 
in  Germany,  in  Holland,  wherever  there 
were  good  scholars  and  good  fellows. 
He  pretends  to  approach  this  part  of 
his  subject  with  fear;  for  divines,  he 


cure  a toothache,  upon  another  to  re- 


74 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


says,  are  generally  very  hot  and  passionate,  and  when  provoked  they  set 
upon  a man  in  full  cry,  and  hurl  at  him  the  thunders  of  excommunication, 
that  being  their  spiritual  weapon  to  wound  such  as  lift  up  a hand  against 
them.  But  he  plucks  up  courage,  and  proceeds  to  discourse  upon  the  puer- 
ilities which  absorbed  their  minds.  Among  the  theological  questions  which 
they  delighted  to  discuss  were  such  as  these:  the  precise  manner  in  which 
original  sin  was  derived  from  our  first  parents;  whether  time  was  an  ele- 
ment in  the  supernatural  generation  of  our  Lord ; whether  it  would  be  a 
thing  possible  for  the  first  person  in  the  Trinity  to  hate  the  second;  whether 
God,  who  took  our  nature  upon  him  in  the  form  of  a man,  could  as  well  have 
become  a woman,  a beast,  an  herb,  or  a stone ; and  if  he  could,  how  could  he 
have  then  preached  the  gospel,  or  been  nailed  to  the  cross  ? whether  if  St. 
Peter  had  celebrated  the  eucharist  at  the  time  when  our  Saviour  was  upon 
the  cross,  the  consecrated  bread  would  have  been  transubstantiated  into  the 
same  body  that  remained  on  the  tree;  whether,  in  Christ’s  corporal  pres- 
ence in  the  sacramental  wafer,  his  humanity  was  not  abstracted  from  his  God- 
head ; whether,  after  the  resurrection,  we  shall  carnally  eat  and  drink  as  we  do 
in  this  life ; how  it  is  possible,  in  the  transubstantiation,  for  one  body  to  be  in 
several  places  at  the  same  time;  which  is  the  greater  sin,  to  kill  a hundred 
men,  or  for  a cobbler  to  set  one  stitch  in  a shoe  on  Sunday  ? Such  subtleties 
as  these  alternated  with  curious  and  minute  delineations  of  purgatory,  heaven, 
and  hell,  their  divisions,  subdivisions,  degrees,  and  qualities. 

He  heaps  ridicule  also  upon  the  public  preaching  of  those  profound  theo- 
logians. It  was  mere  stage-playing ; and  their  delivery  was  the  very  acme  of 
the  droll  and  the  absurd.  “ Good  Lord ! how  mimical  are  their  gestures ! 
What  heights  and  falls  in  their  voice ! What  toning,  what  bawling,  what 
singing,  what  squeaking,  what  grimaces,  what  making  of  mouths,  wLat  apes’ 
faces  and  distorting  of  their  countenances  !”  And  their  matter  was  even  more 
ridiculous  than  their  manner.  One  of  these  absurd  divines,  discoursing  upon 
the  name  of  Jesus,  subtly  pretended  to  discover  a revelation  of  the  Trinity  in 
the  very  letters  of  which  the  name  was  composed.  It  was  declined  only  in 
three  cases.  That  was  one  mysterious  coincidence.  Then  the  nominative 
ended  in  S,  the  accusative  in  M,  and  the  ablative  in  U,  which  obviously  indi- 
cated Sumraus,  the  beginning;  Medius,  the  middle;  and  Ultimus,  the  end  of  all 
things.  Other  examples  he  gives  of  the  same  profound  nature.  Hor  did  the 
different  orders  of  monks  escape  his  lash.  He  dwelt  upon  the  preposterous 
importance  they  attached  to  trifling  details  of  dress  and  ceremonial.  ‘‘They 
must  be  very  critical  in  the  precise  number  of  their  knots,  in  the  tying -on  of 
their  sandals,  of  what  precise  colors  their  respective  habits  should  be  made, 
and  of  what  stuff;  how  broad  and  long  their  girdles,  how  big  and  in  what 
fashion  their  hoods,  whether  their  bald  crowns  be  of  the  right  cut  to  a hair’s- 
breadth,how  many  hours  they  must  sleep,  and  at  what  minute  rise  to  prayers.” 

In  this  manner  he  proceeds  for  many  a sprightly  page,  rising  from  monks 


CARICATURES  PRECEDING  THE  REFORMATION. 


15 


to  bishops  and  cardinals,  and  from  them  to  popes,  “ who  pretend  themselves 
Christ’s  vicars,”  while  resembling  the  Lord  in  nothing.  Luther  never  went 
farther,  never  was  bolder  or  more  biting,  than  Erasmus  in  this  essay.  But 
all  went  for  nothing  with  the  great  leader  of  reform,  because  Erasmus  refused 
to  abandon  the  Church,  and  cast  in  his  lot  openly  with  the  reformers.  Lu- 
ther calls  him  ‘‘  a mere  Momus,”  who  laughed  at  Catholic  and  Protestant  alike, 
and  looked  upon  the  Christian  religion  itself  very  much  as  Lucian  did  upon 
the  Greek.  Whenever  I pray,”  said  Luther  once,  ‘‘  I pray  for  a curse  upon 
Erasmus.”  It  was  certainly  a significant  fact  that  in  the  heat  of  that  con- 
test Erasmus  should  have  given  the  world  a translation  of  Lucian.  But  he 
was  a great,  wise,  genial  soul,  whose  fame  will  brighten  as  that  age  becomes 
more  justly  and  familiarly  known  to  us. 

The  first  place  in  the  annals  of  such  a warfare  belongs  of  right  to  the  sol- 
diers who  took  their  lives  in  their  hands  and  went  forth  to  meet  the  foe  in  the 
open  field,  braving  torture,  infamy,  and  death  for  the  cause.  Such  were  Lu- 
ther and  his  followers.  But  there  is  a place  in  human  memory  for  the  phi- 
losopher and  the  humorist  who  first  made  the  contest  possible,  and  then  ren- 
dered it  shorter  and  easier. 


V6 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


CHAPTER  YIII. 

COMIC  ART  AND  THE  REFORMATION. 

WHEN  Luther  began  the  immortal  part  of  his  public  career  in  1517  by 
nailing  to  the  church  door  his  ninety -five  theses  against  the  sale  of  in- 
dulgences, wood-engraving  was  an  art  which  had  been  practiced  nearly  a cent- 
ury. He  found  also,  as  we  have  seen,  a public  accustomed  to  satirical  writings 
illustrated  by  wood-cuts.  The  great  Holbein  illustrated  Erasmus’s  “Praise 
of  Folly.”  Brandt’s  “Ship  of  Fools,”  as  well  as  the  litter  of  works  which  it 
called  forth,  was  even  profusely  illustrated.  Caricatures  as  distinct  works, 
though  usually  accompanied  with  abundant  verbal  commentary,  were  familiar 
objects.  Among  the  curiosities  which  Luther  himself  brought  from  Rome 
in  1510,  some  years  before  he  began  his  special  work,  was  a caricature 
suggested  by  the  “Ship  of  Fools,”  showing  how  the  Pope  had  “fooled  the 
whole  world  with  his  superstitions  and  idolatries.”  He  showed  it  to  the 
Prince  Elector  of  Saxony  at  the  time.  The  picture  exhibited  a little  ship 
filled  with  monks,  friars,  and  priests  casting  lines  to  people  swimming  in  the 
sea,  while  in  the  stern  sat  comfortably  the  Pope  with  his  cardinals  and  bishops, 
overshadowed  and  covered  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  who  was  looking  up  to  heaven, 
and  through  whose  help  alone  the  drowning  wretches  were  saved. 

In  talking  about  the  picture  many  years  after,  Luther  said,  “ These  and  the 
like  fooleries  we  then  believed  as  articles  of  faith.”  He  had  not  reached  the 
point  when  he  could  talk  at  his  own  table  of  the  cardinals  as  “ peevish  milk- 
sops, effeminate,  unlearned  blockheads,  whom  the  Pope  places  in  all  kingdoms, 
where  they  lie  lolling  in  kings’  courts  among  the  ladies  and  women.” 

Finding  this  weapon  of  caricature  ready-made  to  his  hands,  he  used  it 
freely,  as  did  also  his  friends  and  his  foes.  He  was  himself  a caricaturist. 
When  Pope  Clement  VII.  seemed  disposed  to  meet  the  reformers  half-way, 
and  proposed  a council  to  that  end,  Luther  wrote  a pamphlet  ridiculing  the 
scheme,  and,  to  give  more  force  to  his  satire,  he  “ caused  a picture  to  be 
drawn”  and  placed  in  the  title-page.  It  was  not  a work  describable  to  the 
fastidious  ears  of  our  century,  unless  we  leave  part  of  the  description  in  Latin. 
The  Pope  was  seated  on  a lofty  throne  surrounded  by  cardinals  having  foxes’ 
tails,  and  seeming  “ siirswn  et  deorsum  repurgare^  In  the  “ Table-talk  ” we 
read  also  of  a picture  being  brought  to  Luther  in  which  the  Pope  and  Judas 
were  represented  hanging  to  the  purse  and  keys.  “ ’Twill  vex  the  Pope  hor- 


COMIC  ART  AND  THE  REFORMATION. 


11 


Papa,  Doctor  Theologi^  ex  Magister 
Fidei. 


ribly,”  said  Luther,  “that  he  whom  emperors  and  kings  have  worshiped  should 
now  be  figured  hanging  upon  his  own  pick- 
locks.”  The  picture  annexed,  in  which  the 
Pope  is  exhibited  with  an  ass’s  head  perform- 
ing on  the  bagpipes,  was  entirely  in  the  taste 
of  Luther.  “ The  Pope’s  decretals,”  he  once 
said,  “are  naught;  he  that  drew  them  up  was 
an  ass.”  No  word  was  too  contemptuous  for 
the  papacy.  “ Pope,  cardinals,  and  bishops,” 
said  he,  “ are  a pack  of  guzzling,  stuffing 
wretches ; rich,  wallowing  in  wealth  and  lazi- 
ness, resting  secure  in  their  power,  and  never 
thinking  of  accomplishing  God’s  will.” 

The  famous  pamphlet  of  caricatures  pub- 
lished in  1521  by  Luther’s  friend  and  follower, 

Lucas  Cranach,  contains  pictures  that  we  could 
easily  believe  Luther  himself  suggested.  The 
object  was  to  exhibit  to  the  eyes  of  the  people 
of  Germany  the  contrast  between  the  religion  “A  long-eared  ass  can  with  the  Bagpipes 

inculcated  by  the  lowly  Jesus  and  the  pompous  as  well  as  with  Theology  the  Pope.”— 
worldliness  of  the  papacy.  There  was  a pict-  Germany,  1545. 

lire  on  each  page  which  nearly  filled  it,  and  at  the  bottom  there  were  a few 
lines  in  German  of  explanation ; the  engraving  on  the  page  to  the  left  repre- 
senting an  incident  in  the  life  of  Christ,  and  the  page  to  the  right  a feature  of 
the  papal  system  at  variance  with  it.  Thus,  on  the  first  page  was  shown  Jesus, 

in  humble  attitude  and  simple  raiment, 
refusing  honors  and  dignities,  and  on  the 
page  opposite  the  Pope,  cardinals,  and 
bishops,  with  warriors,  cannon,  and  forts, 
assuming  lordship  over  kings.  On  an- 
other page  Christ  was  seen  crowned  with 
thorns  by  the  scoffing  soldiers,  and  on 
the  opposite  page  the  Pope  wearing  his 
triple  crown,  and  seated  on  his  throne, 
an  object  of  adoration  to  his  court.  On 
another  was  shown  Christ  washing  the 
feet  of  his  disciples,  in  contrast  to  the 
Pope  presenting  his  toe  to  an  emperor 
to  be  kissed.  At  length  we  have  Christ 
ascending  to  heaven  with  a glorious  es- 
cort of  angels,  and  on  the  other  page  the 
Pope  hurled  headlong  to  hell,  accompa- 
Tue  Pope  cast  into  Hell.  (Lucas  Crauach,  1521.)  llied  by  devils,  with  SOIlie  of  his  OWIl 


18 


CAKICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


monks  already  in  the  flames  waiting  to  receive  him.  This  concluding  picture 
may  serve  as  a specimen  of  a series  that  must  have  told  powerfully  on  the  side 
of  reform.* 

These  pictorial  pamphlets  were  an  important  part  of  the  stock  in  trade  of 
the  colporteurs  who  pervaded  the  villages  and  by-ways  of  Germany  during 
Luther’s  life-time,  selling  the  sermons  of  the  reformers,  homely  satiric  verses, 
and  broadside  caricatures.  The  simplicity  and  directness  of  the  caricatures 
of  that  age  reflected  perfectly  both  the  character  and  the  methods  of  Luther. 
One  picture  of  Hans  Sachs’s  has  been  preserved,  which  was  designed  as  an 
illustration  of  the  words  of  Christ : I am  the  door.  He  that  entereth  not  by 

the  door  into  the  sheepfold,  but  climbeth  up  some  other  way,  the  same  is  a 
thief  and  a robber.”  The  honest  Sachs  shows  us  a lofty,  well-built  barn,  with 
a very  steep  roof,  on  the  very  top  of  which  sits  the  Pope  crowned  with  his 
tiara.  To  him  cardinals  and  bishops  are  directing  people,  and  urging  them  to 
climb  up  the  steep  and  slippery  height.  Two  monks  have  done  so,  and  are 
getting  in  at  a high  window.  At  the  open  door  of  the  edifice  stands  the  Lord, 
with  a halo  round  his  head,  inviting  a humble  inquirer  to  enter  freely.  Noth- 
ing was  farther  from  the  popular  caricaturists  of  that  age  than  to  allegorize  a 
doctrine  or  a moral  lesson ; on  the  contrary,  it  was  their  habit  to  interpret  alle- 
gory in  the  most  absurdly  literal  man- 
ner. Observe,  for  example,  the  treat- 
ment of  the  subject  contained  in  the 
words,  “How  wilt  thou  say  to  thy 
brother.  Let  me  pull  out  the  mote  out 
of  thine  eye,  and,  behold,  a bea7n  is  in 
thine  own  eye?” 

The  marriage  of  Luther  in  1525 
was  followed  by  a burst  of  caricature. 
The  idea  of  a priest  marrying  excited 
then,  as  it  does  now  in  a Catholic  mind, 
a sense  of  ludicrous  incongruity.  It  is 
as  though  the  words  “ married  priest  ” 
were  a contradiction  in  terms,  and  the 
relation  implied  by  them  was  a sort  of 
manifest  incompatibility,  half  comic, 
half  disgusting.  The  spectacle  occa- 
sionally presented  in  a Protestant  church 
of  a clergyman  ordained  and  married  in 
the  same  hour  is  so  opposed  to  the  Cath- 
olic conception  of  the  priesthood  that  some  Catholics  can  only  express  their 
sense  of  it  by  laughter.  Equally  amazing  and  equally  ludicrous  to  them  is  the 


From  “ A History  of  Caricature,”  p.  254,  by  Thomas  Wright,  London,  1864. 


COMIC  AET  AND  THE  EEFORMATION. 


79 


Lutuek  Tkiumpjiant.  (Paris,  1535.) 


more  frequent  case  of  missionaries  coming  home  to  be  married,  or  young  mis- 
sionaries married  in  the  evening  and  setting  out  for  their  station  the  next 
morning.  We  observe  that  some  of  Luther’s  nearest  friends  — nay,  Luther 
himself — saw  something  both  ridiculous  and  contemptible  in  his  marriage,  par- 
ticularly in  the  haste  with  which  it  was  concluded,  and  the  disparity  in  the 
ages  of  the  pair,  Luther  being  forty-two  and  his  wife  twenty-six.  My  mar- 
riage,” wrote  Luther,  “ has  made  me  so  despicable  that  I hope  my  humiliation 
will  rejoice  the  angels  and  vex  the  devils.”  And  Melanchthon,  while  doing  his 
best  to  restore  his  leader’s  self-respect,  expressed  the  hope  that  the  ^^accidenV'^ 
might  be  of  use  in  humbling  Luther  a little  in  the  midst  of  a success  perilous 
to  his  good  sense.  Luther  was  not  long  abased.  We  find  him  soon  justifying 
the  act,  which  was  among  the  boldest  and  wisest  of  his  life,  as  a tribute  of  obe- 
dience to  his  aged  father,  who  required  it  in  hopes  of  issue,”  and  as  a practi- 
cal confirmation  of  what  he  had  himself  taught.  He  speaks  gayly  of  my  rib, 
Kate,”  and  declared  once  that  he  would  not  exchange  his  wife  for  the  kingdom 
of  France  or  the  wealth  of  Venice. 

But  the  caricaturists  were  not  soon  weary  of  the  theme.  Readers  at  all 
familiar  with  the  manners  of  that  age  do  not  need  to  be  told  that  few  of  the 
efforts  of  their  free  pencils  will  bear  reproduction  now.  Besides  exhibiting 
the  pair  carousing,  dancing,  romping,  caressing,  and  in  various  situations  sup- 
posed to  be  ridiculous,  the  satirists  harped  a good  deal  upon  the  old  prophecy 
that  Antichrist  would  be  the  offspring  of  a monk  and  a nun.  “If  that  is  the 
case,”  said  Erasmus,  “ how  many  thousands  of  Antichrists  there  are  in  the 
world  already !”  Luther  was  evidently  of  the  same  opinion,  for  he  gave  full 
credit  to  the  story  of  six  thousand  infants’  skulls  having  been  found  at  the 
bottom  of  a pond  near  a convent,  as  well  as  to  that  of  “ twelve  great  pots,  in 


80 


CAKICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


each  of  which  was  the  carcass  of  an  infant,”  discovered  under  the  cellars  of  an- 
other convent.  But,  then,  Luther  was  among  the  most  credulous  of  men. 

The  marriage  of  the  monk  and  the  nun  gave  only  a brief  advantage  to  the 
enemies  of  reform.  The  great  German  artists  of  that  generation  were  friends 
of  Luther.  No  name  is  more  distinguished  in  the  early  annals  of  German  art 
than  Albert  Diirer,  painter,  engraver,  sculptor,  and  author.  He  did  not  em- 
ploy his  pencil  in  furtherance  of  Luther’s  cause,  nor  did  he  forsake  the  com- 
munion of  the  ancient  Church,  but  he  expressed  the  warmest  sympathy  with 
the  objects  of  the  reformer.  A report  of  Luther’s  death  in  1521  struck  horror 
to  his  soul.  ‘‘  Whether  Luther  be  yet  living,”  he  wrote,  “ or  whether  his  ene- 
mies have  put  him  to  death,  I know  not;  yet  certainly  what  he  has  suffered  has 
been  for  the  sake  of  truth,  and  because  he  has  reprehended  the  abuses  of  un- 
christian papacy,  which  strives  to  fetter  Christian  liberty  with  the  incumbrance 
of  human  ordinances,  that  we  may  be  robbed  of  the  price  of  our  blood  and 
sweat,  and  shamefully  plundered  by  idlers,  while  the  sick  and  needy  perish 
through  hunger.”  These  words  go  to  the  heart  of  the  controversy. 

Holbein,  nearly  thirty  years  younger  than  Diirer,  only  just  coming  of  age 
when  Luther  nailed  his  theses  to  the  castle  church,  did  more,  as  the  reader  has 
already  seen,  than  express  in  words  his  sympathy  with  reform.  The  fineness 
and  graphic  force  of  the  two  specimens  of  his  youthful  talent  given  on  pages 
72,  73,^  every  reader  must  have  remarked.  Only  three  copies  of  these  pict- 
ures are  known  to  exist.  They  appeared  at  the  time  when  Luther  had  kindled 
a general  opposition  to  the  sale  of  indulgences,  as  well  as  some  ill  feeling  to- 
ward the  classic  authors  so  highly  esteemed  by  Erasmus.  They  are  in  a pecul- 
iar sense  Lutheran  pictures,  and  they  give  expression  to  the  reformer’s  preju- 
dices and  convictions.  A third  wood- cut  of  Holbein’s  is  mentioned  by  Wolt- 
mann,  dated  1524,  in  which  the  Pope  is  shown  riding  in  a litter  surrounded 
by  an  armed  escort,  and  on  the  other  side  Christ  is  seen  on  an  ass,  accompa- 
nied by  his  disciples.  These  three  works  were  Holbein’s  contribution  to  the 
earlier  stage  of  the  movement. 

This  artist  was  soon  drawn  away  to  the  splendid  court  of  Henry  VHI.  of 
England,  where,  among  other  works,  he  executed  his  renowned  paintings, 
“The  Triumph  of  Riches”  and  “The  Triumph  of  Poverty,”  in  both  of  which 
there  is  satire  enough  to  bring  them  within  our  subject.  Of  these  stupendous 
works,  each  containing  seventeen  or  more  life-size  figures,  every  trace  has  per- 
ished except  the  artist’s  original  sketch  of  “ The  Triumph  of  Riches.”  But 
they  made  a vivid  impression  upon  the  two  generations  which  saw  them,  and 
we  have  so  many  engravings,  copies,  and  descriptions  of  them  that  it  is  almost 
as  if  we  still  possessed  the  originals.  Holbein’s  sketch  is  now  in  the  Louvre 
at  Paris.  It  will  convey  to  the  reader  some  idea  of  the  harmonious  grandeur 


* From  “Holbein  and  his  Time,”  p.  241-243,  by  Alfred  Woltmann;  translated  by  F.  E. 
Bunnett,  London,  1872. 


COMIC  ART  AND  THE  REFORxMATION. 


81 


of  the  painting,  and 
some  notion  of 
the  ingenious  and 
friendly  nature  of 
its  satire  upon  hu- 
man life. 

In  accordance 
with  the  custom  of 
the  age,  the  paint- 
ing bore  an  explan- 
atory motto  in  Lat- 
in : Gold  is  the 

father  of  lust  and 
the  son  of  sorrow. 

He  who  lacks  it 
laments ; he  who  ^ 
has  it  fears.”  Plu- 
tiis,  the  god  of  2 
wealth,  is  an  old,  g 
old  man,  long  past  ^ 
enjoyment ; but  his 
foot  rests  upon  p 
sacks  of  superflu-  ^ 
ous  coin,  and  an 

Cl 

open  vessel  before 
him,  heaped  with  g 
money,  affords  the  ^ 
only  pleasures  left  p 
to  him — the  sight 
and  conscious  pos- 
session of  the 
wealth  he  can  nev- 
er use.  Below  him 
Fortuna,  a young 
and  lovely  wom- 
an, scatters  money 
among  the  people 
who  throng  about 
her,  among  whom 
are  the  portly  Si- 
clueus.  Dido’s  hus- 
band, the  richest  of 
his  people;  Themis- 


6 


82 


CAEICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


tocles,  who  stooped  to  accept  wealth  from  the  Persian  king ; and  many  others 
noted  in  classic  story  for  the  part  gold  played  in  their  lives.  Croesus,  Midas, 
and  Tantalus  follow  on  horseback,  and,  last  of  all,  the  unveiled  Cleopatra. 
The  careful  driver  of  Plutus’s  chariot  is  Ratio — reason.  “ Faster  !”  cries  one 
of  the  crowd,  but  the  charioteer  still  holds  a tight  rein.  The  unruly  horses 
next  the  chariot,  named  Interest  and  Contract,  are  led  by  the  noble  maidens 
Equity  and  Justice;  and  the  wild  pair  in  front.  Avarice  and  Deceit,  are  held  in 
by  Generosity  and  Good  Faith.  In  the  rear,  hovering  over  the  triumphal 
band,  Nemesis  threatens. 

The  companion  picture, The  Triumph  of  Poverty,”  had  also  a Latin 
motto,  to  the  effect  that,  while  the  rich  man  is  ever  anxious,  “ the  poor  man 
fears  nothing,  joyous  hope  is  his  portion,  and  he  learns  to  serve  God  by  the 
practice  of  virtue.”  In  the  picture  a lean  and  hungry -looking  old  woman. 
Poverty,  was  seen  riding  in  the  lowliest  of  vehicles,  a cart,  drawn  by  two  don- 
keys, Stupidity  and  Clumsiness,  and  by  two  oxen.  Negligence  and  Indolence. 
Beside  her  in  the  cart  sits  Misfortune.  A meagre  and  forlorn  crowd  surround 
and  follow  them.  But  the  slow-moving  team  is  guided  by  the  four  blooming 
girls.  Moderation,  Diligence,  Alertness,  and  Toil,  of  whom  the  last  is  the  one 
most  abounding  in  vigor  and  health.  The  reins  are  held  by  Hope,  her  eyes 
toward  heaven.  Industry,  Memory,  and  Experience  sit  behind,  giving  out  to 
the  hungry  crowd  the  means  of  honorable  plenty  in  the  form  of  flails,  axes, 
squares,  and  hammers. 

These  human  and  cheerful  works  stand  in  the  waste  of  that  age  of  wrath- 
ful controversy  and  irrational  devotion  like  green  islands  in  the  desert,  a rest 
to  the  eye  and  a solace  to  the  mind. 

When  Luther  was  face  to  face  with  the  hierarchy  at  the  Diet  of  Worms, 
Calvin,  a French  boy  of  twelve,  was  already  a sharer  in  the  worldly  advantage 
which  the  hierarchy  could  bestow  upon  its  favorites.  He  held  a benefice  in 
the  Cathedral  of  Noyon,  his  native  town,  and  at  seventeen  he  drew  additional 
revenue  from  a curacy  in  a neighboring  parish.  The  tonsured  boy  owed  this 
ridiculous  preferment  to  the  circumstance  that  his  father,  being  secretary  to 
the  bishop  of  the  diocese,  was  sure  to  be  at  hand  when  the  bishop  happened  to 
have  a good  thing  to  give  away.  In  all  probability  Jean  Calvin  would  have 
died  an  archbishop  or  a cardinal  if  he  had  remained  in  the  Church  of  his  an- 
cestors, for  he  possessed  the  two  requisites  for  advancement — fervent  zeal  for 
the  Church  and  access  to  the  bestowers  of  its  prizes.  At  Paris,  however, 
whither  he  was  sent  by  his  father  to  pursue  his  studies,  a shy,  intense,  devout 
lad,  already  thin  and  sallow  with  fasting  and  study,  the  light  of  the  Reforma- 
tion broke  upon  him.  Like  Luther,  he  long  resisted  it,  and  still  longer  hoped 
to  see  a reformation  m the  Church,  not  outside  of  its  pale.  The  Church  never 
had  a more  devoted  son.  Not  Luther  himself  loved  it  more.  “ I was  so  ob- 
stinately given  to  the  superstitions  of  popery,”  he  said,  long  after,  “ that  it 
seemed  impossible  I should  ever  be  pulled  out  of  the  deep  mire.” 


COMIC  ART  AND  THE  REFORMATION. 


83 


He  struggled  out  at  length.  Observe  one  of  the  results  of  his  conversion 
in  this  picture,  in  which  a slander  of  the 
day  is  preserved  for  our  inspection.* 

Gross  and  filthy  calumny  was  one  of  the 
familiar  weapons  in  the  theological  contests 
of  that  century.  Both  sides  employed  it — 

Luther  and  Calvin  not  less  than  others — for 
it  belonged  to  that  age  to  hate,  and  hence 
to  misinterpret,  opponents.  Search  the 
records  of  the  city  of  N"oyon,  in  Picardie,” 
wrote  Stapleton,  an  eminent  controversial- 
ist on  the  Catholic  side,  and  professor  in  a 
Catholic  college  of  Calvin’s  own  day,  “ and 
read  again  that  Jean  Calvin,  convicted  of  a 
crime”  (infamous  and  unmentionable), ‘‘ by 
the  very  clement  sentence  of  the  bishop  and 
magistrate  was  branded  with  an  iron  lily 
on  the  shoulders.”  The  records  have  been 
searched ; nothing  of  the  kind  is  to  be 
found  in  them ; but  the  picture  was  drawn 
and  scattered  over  France.  Precisely  the 
same  charge  was  made  against  Luther. 

That  both  the  reformers  died  of  infamous  diseases  was  another  of  the  scandals 
of  the  time.  In  reading  these  controversies,  it  is  convenient  to 'keep  in  mind 
the  remark  of  the  collector  of  the  Calvin  pictures : “ When  two  theologians 
accuse  one  another,  both  of  them  lie.”  One  of  these  calumnies  drew  from 
Calvin  a celebrated  retort.  ‘‘They  accuse  me,”  said  he,  “of  having  no  chil- 
dren. In  every  land  there  are  Christians  who  are  my  children.” 

Another  caricature,  shown  on  the  following  page,  representing  Calvin  at 
the  burning  of  Servetus,  had  only  too  much  foundation  in  truth. 

The  reformer  was  not  indeed  present  at  the  burning,  but  he  caused  the 
arrest  of  the  victim,  drew  up  the  charges,  furnished  part  of  the  testimony  that 
convicted  him,  consented  to  and  approved  his  execution.  Servetus  was  a 
Spanish  physician,  of  blameless  life  and  warm  convictions,  who  rejected  the 
doctrine  of  the  Trinity.  Catholic  and  Protestant  equally  abhorred  him,  and 
Protestant  Geneva  seized  the  opportunity  to  show  the  world  its  attachment 
to  the  true  faith  by  burning  a man  whom  Rome  was  also  longing  to  burn.  It 
was  a hideous  scene — a virtuous  and  devoted  Unitarian  expiring  in  the  flames 
after  enduring  the  extremest  anguish  for  thirty  minutes,  and  crying,  from  the 
depths  of  his  torment,  “ Jesus,  thou  Son  of  the  eternal  God,  have  mercy  on 
me !”  But  it  was  not  Calvin  who  burned  him.  It  was  the  century.  It  was 


Calyin  bkanded.  (Paris.) 


* From  “ Musee  de  la  Caricature  en  France,”  Paris,  1834. 


84 


CAKICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


iaiperfectly  developed  human  nature.  Man  had  not  reached  the  civilization 
which  admits,  allows,  welcomes,  and  honors  disinterested  conviction.  It  were 
as  unjust  to  blame  Calvin  for  burning  Servetus  as  it  is  to  hold  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church  of  the  present  day  responsible  for  the  Inquisition  of  three 
centuries  ago.  It  was  Man  that  was  guilty  of  all  those  stupid  and  abominable 
cruelties.  Luther,  the  man  of  his  period,  honestly  declared  that  if  he  were  the 
Lord  God,  and  saw  kings,  princes,  bishops,  and  judges  so  little  mindful  of  his 
Son,  he  would  knock  the  icorld  to  pieces.'’^  If  Calvin  had  not  bui-ned  Serve- 


Cai.vin  at  the  Bukjsikg  of  Sekvetus. 


tus,  Servetus  might  have  burned  Calvin,  and  the  Pope  would  have  been  happy 
to  burn  both. 

One  of  the  best  caricatures — perhaps  the  very  best — which  the  Reforma- 
tion called  forth  was  suggested  by  the  dissensions  that  arose  between  the  fol- 
lowers of  Luther  and  Calvin  when  both  of  them  were  in  the  grave.  It  might 
have  amused  the  very  persons  caricatured.  We  can  fancy  Lutherans,  Calvin- 
ists, and  Catholics  all  laughing  togetlier  at  the  spectacle  of  the  two  reformers 
holding  the  Pope  by  the  ear,  and  with  their  other  hands  fighting  one  another, 
Luther  clawing  at  Calvin’s  beard,  and  Calvin  hurling  a Bible  at  Luther’s  head. 

On  the  same  sheet  in  the  original  drawing  a second  picture  was  given,  in 
wliich  a shepherd  was  seen  on  his  knees,  surrounded  by  his  flock,  addressing 
the  Lord,  who  is  visible  in  the  sky.  Underneath  is  written,  “ The  Lord  is  my 
Shepherd ; he  will  never  forsake  me.”  The  work  has  an  additional  interest 
as  showing  how  early  the  French  began  to  excel  in  caricature.  In  the  Ger- 


COMIC  AET  AND  THE  EEFOEMATION. 


8d 


man  and  English  caricatures  of  that  period  there  are  no  existing  specimens 
which  equal  this  one  in  effective  simplicity. 

Perhaps  the  all-per- 
vadinsT  influence  of  Rabe- 
lais  in  that  age  may  have 
made  French  satire  more 
good-humored.  After  all 
efforts  to  discover  in  the 
works  of  Rabelais  hidden 
allusions  to  the  great  per- 
sonages and  events  of  his 
time,  we  must  remain  of 
the  opinion  that  he  was  a 
fun -maker  pure  and  sim- 
ple, a court -fool  to  his 
centuiy.  The  anecdote 
related  of  his  convent  life 
seems  to  give  us  the  key 
both  to  his  character  and 
his  writings.  The  inci- 
dent has  often  been  used 
in  comedy  since  Rabelais 
employed  it.  On  the  fes- 
tival of  St.  Francis,  to 
whom  his  convent  was 
dedicated,  when  the  coun- 
try people  came  in,  laden 
with  votive  offerings,  to 
pray  before  the  image  of 
the  saint,  young  Rabelais 
removed  the  image  from  its  dimly  lighted  recess  and  mounted  himself  upon 
the  pedestal,  attired  in  suitable  costume.  Group  after  group  of  awkward 
rustics  approached  and  paid  their  homage.  Rabelais  at  length,  overcome  by 
the  ridiculous  demeanor  of  the  worshipers,  was  obliged  to  laugh,  whereupon 
the  gaping  throng  cried  out,  A miracle  ! a miracle  ! Our  good  lord  St.  Fran- 
cis moves  1”  But  a cunning  old  friar,  who  knew  when  miracles  might  and 
might  not  be  rationally  expected  in  that  convent,  ran  into  the  chapel  and  drew 
out  the  merry  saint,  and  the  brothers  laid  their  knotted  cords  so  vigorously 
across  his  naked  shoulders  that  he  had  a lively  sense  of  not  being  made  of 
wood.  That  was  Rabelais ! He  was  a natural  laugh-compeller.  He  laughed 
at  every  thing,  and  set  his  countrymen  laughing  at  every  thing.  But  there 
were  no  men  who  oftener  provoked  his  derision  than  the  monks.  “How  is 
it?”  asks  one  of  his  merry  men,  “that  people  exclude  monks  from  all  good 


86 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


companies,  calling  them  feast-troublers,  marrers  of  mirth,  and  disturbers  of  all 
civil  conversation, as  bees  drive  away  the  drones  from  their  hives?”  The  hero 
answers  this  question  in  three  pages  of  most  Rabelaisan  abuse,  of  which  only 
a very  few  lines  are  quotable.  ‘‘Your  monk,”  he  says,  “is  like  a monkey  in 
a house.  He  does  not  watch  like  a dog,  nor  plow  like  the  ox,  nor  give  wool 
like  the  sheep,  nor  carry  like  the  horse ; he  only  spoils  and  defiles  all  things. 
Monks  disquiet  all  their  neighborhood  with  a tingle- tangle  jangling  of  bells,  and 
mumble  out  great  store  of  psalms,  legends,  and  paternosters  without  thinking 
upon  or  apprehending  the  meaning  of  what  they  say,  which  truly  is  a mocking 
of  God.”  There  is  no  single  theme  to  which  Rabelais,  the  favorite  of  bish- 
ops, oftener  returns  than  this,  and  his  boisterous  satire  had  its  effect  upon  the 
course  of  events  in  Europe,  as  well  as  upon  French  art  and  literature. 

The  English  caricatures  that  have  come  down  to  us  from  the  era  of  the 
Reformation  betray  far  more  earnestness  than  humor  or  ingenuity.  There  is 
one  in  the  British  Museum  which  figures  in  so  many  books,  and  continued  to 
do  duty  for  so  many  years,  that  the  inroads  of  the  worms  in  the  wood-cut  can 
be  traced  in  the  prints  of  different  dates.  It  represents  King  Henry  YHI. 
receiving  a Bible  from  Archbishop  Cranmer  and  Lord  Cromwell.  The  burly 
monarch,  seated  upon  his  throne,  takes  the  book  from  their  hands,  while  he 
tramples  upon  Pope  Clement,  lying  prostrate  at  his  feet,  the  tiara  broken  and 
fallen  off,  the  triple  cross  lying  on  the  ground.  Cardinal  Pole,  with  the  aid  of 
another  dignitary,  is  trying  to  get  the  Pope  on  his  feet  again.  A monk  is 
holding  the  Pope’s  horse,  and  other  monks  stand  dismayed  at  the  spectacle. 
This  picture  was  executed  in  1537,  but,  as  we  learn  from  the  catalogue,  the 
deterioration  of  the  block  and  “ the  working  of  worms  in  the  wood  ” prove 
that  the  impression  in  the  Museum  was  taken  in 

The  martyrdom  of  the  reformers  in  1555,  under  Queen  Mary  of  bloody 
memory,  furnished  subjects  for  the  satiric  pen  and  pencil  as  soon  as  the  acces- 
sion of  Elizabeth  made  it  safe  to  treat  them.  But  there  is  no  spirit  of  fun  in 
the  pictures.  They  are  as  serious  and  grim  as  the  events  that  suggested 
them.  In  one  we  see  a lamb  suspended  before  an  altar,  which  the  Bishop  of 
Winchester  (Gardiner),  with  his  wolf’s  head,  is  beginning  to  devour;  and  on 
the  ground  lie  six  slain  lambs,  named  Ilouperus,  Cranmerus^  Bradfordus^ 
Bydlerus^  Bogerus,  and  Latimerus,  Three  reformers  put  a rope  round  Gar- 
diner’s neck,  saying,  “ TFe  will  not  this  feloue  to  raigne  over  and  on  the 
other  side  of  him  two  bishops  with  wolves’  heads  mitred,  and  having  sheep- 
skins on  their  shoulders,  are  drinking  from  chalices.  Behind  Gardiner  are 
several  men  attached  by  rings  through  their  noses  to  a rope  round  his  waist. 
The  devil  appears  above,  holding  a scroll,  on  which  is  written,  “ Youe  are  my 
verye  chyldren  in  that  youe  have  slayne  the  prog)hetes.  For  even  I from  the 


* “Catalogue  of  Prints  and  Drawings  in  the  British  Museum,”  Division  L,  vol.  i.,  p.  2.  Lon- 
don, 1870. 


COMIC  ART  AND  THE  REFORMATION. 


87 


begynnmg  was  a murtherery  On  the  altar  lie  two  books,  o-ne  open  and  the 
other  shut.  On  the  open  book  we  read,  Christ  alone  is  not  sufficient  without 
our  sacrificed  The  only  window  in  the  edifice,  a small  round  one,  is  closed 
and  barred.  Many  of  the  figures  in  this  elaborate  piece  utter  severe  animad- 
version upon  opponents ; but  none  of  them  is  scurrilous  and  indecent,  except 
the  mitred  wolf,  who  is  so  remarkably  plain-spoken  that  the  compiler  of  the 
catalogue  was  obliged  to  suppress  several  of  his  words. 

The  English  caricaturists  of  that  age  seem  to  have,  felt  it  their  duty  to  ex- 
liibit  the  entire  case  between  Catholic  and  Protestant  in  each  broadside,  with 
all  the  litigants  on  both  sides,  terrestrial  and  celestial,  all  the  points  in  both 
arguments,  and  sometimes  the  whole  history  of  the  controversy  from  the  be- 
ginning. The  great  expanse  of  the  picture  was  obscured  with  the  number  of 
remarks  streaming  from  the  mouths  of  the  persons  depicted,  and  there  was 
often  at  the  bottom  of  the  engraving  prose  and  verse  enough  to  fill  two  or 
three  of  these  pages.  Such  extensive  works  call  to  mind  the  sermons  of  the 
following  century,  when  preachers  endeavored  on  each  occasion  to  declare,  as 
they  said,  the  whole  counsel  of  God so  that  if  one  individual  present  had 
never  heard  the  Gospel  before,  and  should  never  hear  it  again,  he  would  hear 
enough  for  salvation  in  that  one  discourse. 

Another  of  these  martyrdom  prints  may  claim  brief  notice.  Two  compa- 
nies of  martyrs  are  seen,  one  composed  of  the  bishops,  and  the  other  of  less 
distinguished  persons,  between  whom  there  is  a heap  of  burning  fagots. 
Nearly  all  the  figures  say  something,  and  the  space  under  the  picture  is  filled 
with  verses.  Cranmer,  with  the  Bible  in  his  left  hand,  holds  his  right  in  the 
fire,  exclaiming,  ^^Burne^  unworthie  right  handP''  Latimer  cries,  Lord^ 
Lord,  receive  my  spirit  Philpot,  pointing  to  a book  which  he  holds,  says, 
‘‘7"  will  pay  my  voices  in  thee,  0 Smithfield P"^  The  other  characters  utter 
their  dying  words.  The  verses  are  rough,  but  full  of  the  resolute  enthusiasm 
of  the  age : 

“First,  Christian  Cranmer,  who  (at  first  tho  foild). 

And  so  subscribing  to  a recantation, 

God’s  grace  recouering  him,  hee,  quick  recoil’d. 

And  made  his  hand  ith  flames  make  expiation. 

Saing,  burne  faint-hand,  burne  first,  ’tis  thy  due  merit. 

And  dying,  cryde.  Lord  Jesus  take  my  spirit. 

“Next,  lovely  Latimer,  godly  and  grave, 

Himselfe,  Christs  old  tride  souldier,  plaine  displaid. 

Who  stoutly  at  the  stake  did  him  behave. 

And  to  blest  Ridley  (gone  before)  hee  saide, 

Goe  on  blest  brother,  for  I followe,  neere. 

This  day  wee’le  light  a light,  shall  aye  burne  cleare. 

“Whom  when  religious,  reverend  Ridley  spide, 

Deere  heart  (sayes  hee)  bee  cheerful  in  y*"  Lord  ; 


88 


CAEICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


Who  never  (yet)  his  helpe  to  his  denye’d, 

& hee  will  us  support  & strength  afford, 

Or  suage  y®  flame,  thus,  to  the  stake  fast  tide. 

They,  constantly  Christs  blessed  Martyres  dyde. 

“ Blest  Bradford  also  comming  to  the  stake, 

Cheerfully  tooke  a faggott  in  his  hand  : 

Kist  it,  &,  thus,  unto  a young-man  spake, 

with  him,  chained,  to  y®  stake  did  stand, 

Take  courage  (brother)  wee  shal  haue  this  night, 

A blessed  supper  w^^  the  Lord  of  Light. 

“Admir’d  was  Doctor  Tailers  faith  & grace. 

Who  under-went  greate  hardship  spight  and  spleene; 

One,  basely,  threw  a Faggot  in  his  face, 

W*^^  made  y®  blood  ore  all  bis  face  bee  seene ; 

Another,  baiberously  beate  out  his  braines. 

Whilst,  at  y®  stake  his  corps  was  bound  w'^  chaines.” 

In  many  of  the  English  pictures  of  that  period,  the  intention  of  the 
draughtsman  is  only  made  apparent  by  the  explanatory  words  at  the  bot- 
tom. In  one  of  these  a friar  is  seen  holding  a chalice  to  a man  who  stretches 
out  his  hands  to  receive  it.  From  the  chalice  a winged  cockatrice  is  rising. 
There  is  also  a man  who  stabs  another  while  embracing  him.  The  quaint 
words  below  explain  the  device : “ The  man  which  standeth  lyke  a Prophet 
signifieth  godliness;  the  Fryer,  ti’eason ; the  cup  with  the  Serpent,  Poyson ; 
the  other  which  striketh  with  the  sworde.  Murder ; and  he  that  is  wounded  is 
Peace.”  In  another  of  these  pictures  we  see  an  ass  dressed  in  a judge’s  robes 
seated  on  the  bench.  Before  him  is  the  prisoner,  led  away  by  a priest  and 
another  man.  At  one  side  a friar  is  seen  in  conversation  with  a layman.  No 
one  could  make  any  thing  of  this  if  the  artist  had  not  obligingly  appended 
these  words:  “The  Asse  signifieth  Wrathfull  Justice;  the  man  that  is  drawn 
away,  Trutli ; those  that  draweth  Truth  by  the  armes,  Flatterers;  the  Frier, 
Lies;  and  the  associate  with  the  Frier,  Perjury.”  In  another  drawing  the 
artist  shows  us  the  Pope  seated  in  a chair,  with  his  foot  on  the  face  of  a pros- 
trate man,  and  in  his  hand  a drawn  sword,  directing  an  executioner  who  is  in 
the  act  of  beheading  a prisoner.  In  the  distance  are  three  men  kneeling  in 
prayer.  The  explanation  is  this:  “The  Pope  is  Oppression;  the  man  which 
killeth  is  Crueltie;  those  which  are  a-killing.  Constant  Religion ; the  three 
kneeling,  Love,  Furtherance,  and  Truth  to  the  Gospel.”  In  one  of  these  crude 
productions  a parson  is  exhibited  preaching  in  a pulpit,  from  which  two  eccle- 
siastics are  dragging  him  by  the  beard  to  the  stake  outside.  Explanation  in 
this  instance  is  not  so  necessary,  but  we  have  it,  nevertheless : “lie  which 
preacheth  in  the  pulpit  signifieth  godly  zeale  and  a furtherer  of  the  gospel ; 
and  the  two  which  are  plucking  him  out  of  his  place  are  the  enemies  of  God’s 
Word,  threatening  by  fire  to  consume  the  professors  of  the  same;  and  that 


COMIC  ART  AND  THE  REFORMATION. 


89 


company  which  (sit)  still  are  Nullifidians^  such  as  are  of  no  religion,  not  re- 
garding any  doctrine,  so  they  may  bee  quiet  to  live  after  their  owne  willes 
and  mindes.”  Another  picture  shows  us  a figure  seated  on  a rainbow,  the 
world  at  his  feet,  up  the  sides  of  which  a pope  and  a cardinal  are  climbing. 
In  the  middle  is  the  devil  tumbling  off  headlong.  The  world  is  upheld  by 
Death,  who  sits  by  the  mouth  of  hell.  This  is  the  explanation:  “He  Avhich 
sitteth  on  the  raynebowe  signifieth  Christ,  and  the  sworde  in  his  hand  signi- 
fieth  his  wrath  against  the  wycked ; the  round  compasse,  the  worlde ; and 
those  two  diming,  the  one  a pope,  the  other  a cardinall,  striving  who  shall 
be  highest;  and  the  Divell  which  falleth  headlong  downe  is  Lucifer,  whiche 
through  pride  fel ; he  whiche  holdeth  the  world  is  Death,  standing  in  the  en- 
trance of  hell  to  receyve  all  superbious  livers.” 

In  another  print  is  represented  a Roman  soldier  riding  on  a boar,  and  bear- 
ing a banner,  on  which  is  painted  the  Pope  with  his  insignia.  A man  stabs 
himself  and  tears  his  hair,  and  behind  him  is  a raving  woman.  This  picture 
has  a blunt  signification  : “The  bore  signifieth  Wrath,  and  the  man  on  his  back 
Mischief;  the  Pope  in  the  flag  Destruction,  and  the  flag  Uncertaine  Religion, 
turning  and  chaunging  with  every  blaste  of  winde;  the  man  killing  himselfe, 
Desperation;  the  woman,  Madness.” 

There  are  fourteen  specimens  in  this  quaint  manner  in  the  collection  of  the 
British  Museum,  all  executed  and  published  in  the  early  part  of  the  reign  of 
Elizabeth.  As  art,  they  are  naught.  As  part  of  the  record  of  a great  age, 
they  have  their  value. 

Germany,  England,  and  France  fought  the  battle  of  the  Reformation — two 
victors  and  one  van- 
quished. From  Italy 
in  that  age  we  have 
one  specimen  of  cari- 
cature, but  it  was  ex- 
ecuted by  Titian.  He 
drew  a burlesque  of 
the  Laocoon  to  ridi- 
cule a school  of  art- 
ists in  Rome,  who,  as 
he  thought,  extolled 
too  highly  the  ancient 
sculptures,  and,  be- 
cause they  could  not 
succeed  in  coloring, 
insisted  that  correctness  of  form  was  the  chief  thing  in  art.  Since  Titian’s 
day,  parodies  of  the  Laocoon  have  been  among  the  stock  devices  of  the  carica- 
turists of  all  nations. 


90 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

IN  THE  PURITAN  PERIOD. 

The  annexed  picture,*  a favorite  with  the  Protestants  of  England,  Holland, 
and  Germany  for  more  than  a century,  is  composed  of  twenty-two  articles 

and  objects,  most  of  which  are  em- 
ployed in  the  Roman  Catholic  wor- 
ship. A church -bell  forms  the  hat, 
which  is  decorated  by  crossed  daggers 
and  holy -water  brushes.  A herring 
serves  for  a nose.  The  mouth  is  an 
open  wine-flagon.  Tlie  eye  is  a chal- 
ice covered  by  the  holy  wafer,  and  the 
cheek  is  a paten,  or  plate  used  in  the 
communion  service.  The  great  vol- 
ume that  forms  the  shoulders  is  the 
mass-book.  The  front  of  the  bell-tiara 
is  adorned  by  a mitred  wolf  devouring 
a lamb,  and  by  a goose  holding  a rosa- 
ry in  its  bill ; the  back,  by  a spectacled 
ass  reading  a book,  and  by  a boar  wear- 
ing a scholar’s  cap.  At  the  bottom  of 
the  engraving  the  pierced  feet  of  Christ 
are  seen  resting  upon  two  creatures 
called  by  the  artist  ^‘the  Queen’s 
badges.”  The  whole  figure  of  Christ 
is  supposed  to  be  behind  this  mass  of 

The  Papal  Gokgon.  (Reign  of  Elizabeth,  1581.)  . r • • • i 

human  inventions;  for  in  the  original 
these  explanatory  words  are  given,  ‘‘Christ  Covered.” 

It  was  by  this  device  that  Master  Batman,  at  the  beginning  of  the  Puritan 
period,  sought  to  present  to  the  eye  a summary  of  what  the  Reformation  had 
accomplished,  and  what  it  had  still  to  fear.  Half  a century  before,  Henry 
YHI.  being  still  the  Defender  of  the  Faith,  the  various  articles  used  in  Master 


* From  “Malcolm’s  Caricaturing,”  plate  2,  and  p.  23.  See,  also,  “Catalogue  of  the  Prints 
and  Drawings  in  the  British  Museum,”  Division  I.,  vol.  ii.,  p.  177. 


IN  THE  PURITAN  PERIOD. 


'91 


Batman’s  satirical  picture  were  objects  of  religious  veneration  tbrougliout 
Great  Britain.  They  had  now  become  the  despised  but  dreaded  rattle-traps 
of  a suppressed  idolatry.  From  the  field  of  strife  one  of  the  victors  gathered 
the  scattered  arms  and  implements,  the  gorgeous  ensigns  and  trappings  of  the 
defeated,  and  piled  them  upon  the  plain,  a trophy  and  a warning. 

There  is  no  revolution  that  does  not  sweep  away  much  that  is  good.  The 
reformation  in  religion,  chiefly  wrought  by  Wycliffe,  Huss,  Luther,  and  Calvin, 
was  a movement  of  absolute  necessity  to  the  further  progress  of  our  race. 
The  intelligence  of  Christendom  had  reached  a development  which  was  incom- 
patible with  respect  for  the  assumptions  of  the  papacy,  and  with  a belief  in  the 
fictions  which  the  papacy  had  invented  or  adopted.  The  vase  must  have  bro- 
ken, or  the  oak  planted  in  it  must  have  ceased  to  grow.  ISTevertheless,  those 
fictions  had  their  beauty  and  their  use.  There  was  a good  and  pleasing  side 
to  that  system  of  fables  and  ceremonies,  which  amused,  absorbed,  and  satisfied 
the  people  of  Europe  for  a thousand  years.  If  we  could  concede  that  the 
mass  of  men  must  remain  forever  ignorant  and  very  poor,  we  could  also  ad- 
mit that  nothing  was  ever  invented  by  man  better  calculated  to  make  them 
thoughtlessly  contented  with  a dismal  lot  than  the  Roman  Catholic  Church 
as  it  existed  in  the  fifteenth  century,  before  the  faith  of  the  people  had  been 
shaken  in  its  pretensions.  There  was  something  in  it  for  every  faculty  of 
human  nature  except  the  intellect.  It  gave  play  to  every  propensity  except 
the  propensity  of  one  mind  in  a thousand  to  ask  radical  questions.  It  re- 
lieved every  kind  of  distress  except  that  which  came  of  using  the  reason. 
All  human  interests  were  provided  for  in  it  except  the  supreme  interest  of 
human  advancement. 

One  must  have  been  in  a Catholic  community,  or  else  lived  close  to  an  im- 
portant Catholic  church,  in  order  to  form  an  idea  of  the  great  part  the  Church 
once  played  in  the  lives  and  thoughts  of  its  members — the  endless  provision 
it  made  for  the  entertainment  of  unformed  minds  in  the  way  of  festivals,  fasts, 
processions,  curious  observances,  changes  of  costume,  and  special  rites.  There 
was  always  something  going  on  or  coming  off.  There  was  not  a day  in  the 
year  nor  an  hour  in  the  day  which  had  not  its  ecclesiastical  name  and  charac- 
ter. In  our  flowery  observance  of  Easter  and  in  our  joyous  celebration  of 
Christmas  we  have  a faint  traditional  residue  of  festivals  that  once  made  all 
Christendom  gay  and  jocund.  And  it  was  all  so  adapted  to  the  limited  abili- 
ties of  our  race ! In  an  average  thousand  men,  there  is  not  more  than  one 
man  capable  of  filling  creditably  the  post  of  a Protestant  minister,  but  there 
are  a hundred  who  can  be  drilled  into  competent  priests. 

Consider,  for  example,  a procession,  which  was  formerlj^  the  great  event  of 
many  of  the  Church  festivals,  gratifying  equally  those  who  witnessed  and  those 
who  took  part  in  it.  In  other  words,  it  gratified  keenly  the  whole  community. 
And  yet  how  entirely  it  was  within  the  resources  of  human  nature!  ‘Not  a 
child  so  young,  not  a woman  so  weak,  not  a man  so  old,  but  could  assist  or 


92 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


enjoy  it.  The  sick  could  view  it  from  their  windows,  the  robust  could  carry 
its  burdens,  the  skillful  could  contrive  its  devices,  and  all  had  the  feeling  that 
they  were  engaged  in  enhancing  at  once  the  glory  of  God,  the  fame  of  their 
saint,  the  credit  of  their  town,  and  the  good  of  their  souls.  It  was  pleasure ; it 
was  duty;  it  was  masquerade;  it  was  devotion.  Some  readers  may  remember 
the  exaltation  of  soul  with  which  Albert  Diirer,  the  first  of  German  artists  in 
Luther’s  age,  describes  the  great  procession  at  Antwerp,  in  1520,  in  honor  of 
what  was  styled  the  “Assumption  ” of  the  Virgin  Mary.  One  of  the  pleasing 
fictions  adopted  by  the  old  Church  was  that  on  the  15th  of  August,  a.d.  45, 
the  Virgin  Mary,  aged  seventy -five  years,  made  a miraculous  ascent  into 
heaven.  Hence  the  annual  festival,  which  was  celebrated  throughout  Europe 
with  pomp  and  splendor.  The  passage  in  the  diary  of  Diirer  has  a particular 
value,  because  it  affords  us  a vivid  view  of  the  bright  side  of  the  ancient 
Church  just  before  the  reformers  changed  its  gorgeous  robes  into  the  Puri- 
tan’s plain  black  gown,  and  substituted  the  long  prayer  and  interminable  ser- 
mon for  the  magnificent  ceremonial  and  the  splendid  procession. 

Albert  Diirer  was  in  sympathy  with  Luther,  but  his  heart  swelled  within 
him  as  he  beheld,  on  that  Sunday  morning  in  Antwerp,  the  glorious  pageantry 
that  filed  past  for  two  hours  in  honor  of  the  “ Mother  of  God’s  ” translation. 
All  the  people  of  the  city  assembled  about  the  Church  of  “ Our  Lady,”  each 
dressed  in  gayest  attire,  but  each  wearing  the  costume  of  his  rank,  and  exhib- 
iting the  badge  of  his  guild  or  vocation.  Silver  trumpets  of  the  old  Fj-ankish 
fashion,  German  drums  and  fifes,  were  playing  in  every  quarter.  The  trades 
and  guilds  of  the  city — goldsmiths,  painters,  masons,  embroiderers,  statuaries, 
cabinet-makers,  carpenters,  sailors,  fishermen,  butchers,  curriers,  weavers,  bak- 
ers, tailors,  shoe-makers,  and  laborers  — all  marched  by  in  order,  at  some  dis- 
tance apart,  each  preceded  by  its  own  magnificent  cross.  These  were  fol- 
lowed by  the  merchants,  shop-keepers,  and  their  clerks.  The  “ shooters  ” came 
next,  armed  with  bows,  cross-bows,  and  firelocks,  some  on  horseback  and  some 
on  foot.  The  city  guard  followed.  Then  came  the  magistrates,  nobles,  and 
knights,  all  dressed  in  their  official  costume,  and  escorted,  as  our  artist  records, 
“ by  a gallant  troop,  arrayed  in  a noble  and  splendid  manner.”  There  were 
a number  of  women  in  the  procession,  belonging  to  a religious  order,  who 
gained  their  subsistence  by  labor.  These,  all  clad  in  white  from  head  to  foot, 
agreeably  relieved  the  splendors  of  the  occasion.  After  them  marched  “a 
number  of  gallant  persons  and  the  canons  of  Our  Lady’s  Church,  with  all  the 
clergy  and  scholars,  followed  by  a grand  display  of  characters.”  Here  the 
enthusiasm  of  the  artist  kindles,  as  he  recalls  the  glories  of  the  day: 

“ Twenty  men  carried  the  Virgin  and  Christ,  most  richly  adorned,  to  the 
honor  of  God.  In  this  part  of  the  procession  were  a number  of  delightful 
things  represented  in  a splendid  manner.  There  were  several  wagons,  in 
which  were  representations  of  ships  and  fortifications.  Then  came  a troop 
of  characters  from  the  Prophets,  in  regular  order,  followed  by  others  from 


IN  THE  PURITAN  PERIOD. 


93 


the  iSTew  Testament,  such  as  the  Annunciation,  the  Wise  Men  of  the  East  rid- 
ing great  camels  and  other  wonderful  animals,  and  the  Flight  into  Egypt,  all 
very  skillfully  appointed.  Then  came  a great  dragon,  and  St.  Margaret  with 
the  image  of  the  Virgin  at  her  girdle,  exceedingly  beautiful;  and  last,  St. 
George  and  his  squire.  In  this  troop  rode  a number  of  boys  and  girls  very 
handsomely  arrayed  in  various  costumes,  representing  so  many  saints.  This 
procession,  from  beginning  to  end,  was  upward  of  two  hours  in  passing  our 
house,  and  there  were  so  many  things  to  be  seen  that  I could  never  describe 
them  all  even  in  a book.” 

In  some  such  hearty  and  picturesque  manner  all  the  great  festivals  of  the 
Church  were  celebrated  age  after  age,  the  entire  people  taking  part  in  the 
show.  There  was  no  dissent,  because  there  was  no  thought.  But  the  re- 
formers preached,  the  Bible  was  translated  into  the  modern  tongues,  the  intel- 
ligence of  Christendom  awoke,  and  all  that  bright  childish  pageantry  vanished 
from  the  sight  of  the  more  advanced  nations.  Tlie  reformers  discovered  that 
there  was  no  reason  to  believe  that  the  aged  Virgin  Mary,  on  the  15th  of 
August,  A.D.  45,  was  borne  miraculously  to  heaven ; and  in  a single  generation 
many  important  communities,  by  using  their  reason  even  to  that  trifling  extent, 
grew  past  enjoying  the  procession  annually  held  in  honor  of  the  old  tradition. 
All  the  old  festivals  fell  under  the  ban.  It  became,  at  length,  a sectarian  punc- 
tilio not  to  abstain  from  labor  on  Christmas.  The  Puritan  Sunday  was  gradu- 
ally evolved  from  the  same  spirit  of  opposition,  and  life  became  intense  and 
serious. 

For  it  is  not  in  a single  generation,  nor  in  ten,  that  the  human  mind,  after 
having  been  bound  and  confined  for  a thousand  years,  learns  to  enjoy  and  safe- 
ly use  its  freedom.  Luther  the  reformer  was  only  a little  less  credulous  than 
Luther  the  monk.  He  assisted  to  strike  the  fetters  from  the  reason,  but  the 
prisoner  only  hobbled  from  one  cell  into  another,  larger  and  cleaner,  but  still 
a cell.  No  one  can  become  familiar  with  the  Puritan  period  without  feeling 
that  the  bondage  of  the  mind  to  the  literal  interpretation  of  some  parts  of  the 
Old  Testament  was  a bondage  as  real,  though  not  as  degrading  nor  as  hope- 
less, as  that  under  which  it  had  lived  to  the  papal  decrees.  You  do  not  make 
your  canary  a free  bird  by  merely  opening  the  door  of  its  cage.  It  has  to  ac- 
quire slowly,  with  anguish  and  great  fear,  the  strength  of  wing,  lungs,  and  eye, 
the  knowledge,  habits,  and  instincts,  which  its  ancestors  possessed  before  they 
were  captured  in  their  native  islands.  It  is  only  in  our  own  day  that  we  are 
beginning  really  to  enjoy  the  final  result  of  Luther’s  heroic  life — a tolerant  and 
modest  freedom  of  thought — for  it  is  only  in  our  own  day  that  the  conse- 
quences of  peculiar  thinking  have  anywhere  ceased  to  be  injurious. 

If  there  are  any  who  can  not  yet  forgive  the  Puritans  for  their  intolerance 
and  narrowness,  it  must  be  they  who  do  not  know  the  agony  of  apprehension 
in  which  they  passed  their  lives.  It  is  the  Puidtan  age  that  could  be  properly 
called  the  Reign  of  Terror.  It  lasted  more  than  a century,  instead  of  a few 


94 


CAKICATUKE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


months,  and  it  was  during  that  long  period  of  dread  and  tribulation,  that  they 
acquired  the  passionate  abhorrence  of  the  papal  system  which  is  betrayed  in 
the  pictures  and  writings  of  the  time.  There  was  a fund  of  terror  in  their 
own  belief,  in  that  awful  Doubt  which  hung  over  every  soul,  whether  it  was  or 
was  not  one  of  the  Elect;  and,  in  addition  to  that,  it  seemed  to  them  that  the 
chief  powers  of  earth,  and  all  the  powers  of  hell,  were  united  to  crush  the  true 
believers. 

Examine  the  two  large  caricatures,  “Rome’s  Monster”  and  “Spayne  and 
Rome  Defeated,”  in  the  light  of  a mere  catalogue  of  dates.  The  Field  of  the 
Cloth  of  Gold,  which  we  may  regard  as  the  splendid  close  of  the  old  state  of 
things,  occurred  in  1520,  three  years  after  Luther  nailed  up  his  theses.  Heniy 


Spaynb  and  Rome  Defeated.  (London  and  Amsterdam,  1G21.) 


VIII.  defied  the  Pope  in  1533 ; and  twenty  years  after.  Bloody  Mary,  married 
to  Philip  of  Spain,  was  burning  bishops  at  Smithfield.  Elizabeth’s  reign  began 
in  1558,  which  changed,  not  ended,  the  religious,  strife  in  England.  The  mas- 
sacre of  St.  Bartholomew  occurred  in  1572,  on  that  24th  of  August  which,  as 
Voltaire  used  to  say,  all  the  humane  and  the  tolerant  of  our  race  should  ob- 
serve as  a day  of  humiliation  and  sorrow  for  evermore.  In  1579  began  the 
long  struggle  between  the  New  and  the  Old,  which  is  called  the  Thirty  Years’ 
War.  The  Prince  of  Orange  was  assassinated  in  1584,  in  the  midst  of  those 
great  events  which  Mr.  Motley  has  made  familiar  to  the  reading  people  of  both 
continents.  Every  intelligent  Protestant  in  Europe  felt  that  the  weapon  which 
slew  the  prince  was  aimed  at  his  own  heart.  The  long  dread  of  the  Queen 
of  Scots’  machinations  ended  only  with  her  death  in  1587.  Soon  after,  the 


IN  THE  PURITAN  PERIOD. 


95 


shadow  of  the  coming  Spanish  Armada  crept  over  Great  Britain,  which  was 
not  dispelled  till  the  men  of  England  defeated  and  the  storm  scattered  it  in 
1588.  In  1605  Guy  Fawkes  and  the  Gunpowder  Plot  struck  such  terror  to 
the  Protestant  mind,  that  it  has  not,  in  this  year,  1877,  wholly  recovered  from 
it,  as  all  may  know  who  will  converse  with  uninstructed  people  in  the  remoter 
counties  of  Great  Britain.  Raleigh  was  beheaded  in  1618.  The  civil  war 
began  in  1642.  In  1665  the  plague  desolated  England,  and  in  the  next  year 
occurred  the  great  fire  of  London,  good  Protestants  not  doubting  that  both 
events  were  traceable  to  the  fell  influence  of  the  Beast.  The  accession  of 
James  II.,  a Roman  Catholic,  filled  the  Puritans  with  new  alarm  in  1685,  and 
during  the  three  anxious  years  of  his  reign  their  brethren,  the  Huguenots,  were 
fleeing  into  all  the  Protestant  lands  from  the  hellish  persecution  of  the  priests 
who  governed  Louis  XIV. 

Upon  looking  back  at  this  period  of  agitation  and  alarm,  it  startles  the 
mind  to  observe  in  the  catalogue  of  dates  this  one:  ‘‘ Shakspeare  died  1616.” 
It  shows  us,  what  the  ordinary  records  do  not  show,  that  there  are  people  who 
retain  their  sanity  and  serenity  in  the  maddest  times.  The  rapid  succession 
of  the  plays— an  average  of  nearly  two  per  annum — proves  that  there  was  a 
public  for  Shakspeare  when  all  the  world  seemed  absorbed  in  subjects  least 
akin  to  art  and  humor.  And  how  little  trace  we  find  of  all  those  thrilling 
events  in  the  plays ! He  was  a London  actor  when  the  Armada  came ; and 
during  the  year  of  the  Gunpowder  Plot  he  was  probably  meditating  the  grand- 
est of  all  his  themes,  ‘‘  King  Lear  !” 

The  picture  entitled  “ Spayne  and  Rome  Defeated  ”*  was  one  of  the  most 
noted  and  influential  broadsheets  published  during  the  Puritan  period.  It 
may  properly  be  termed  a broadsheet,  since  the  copy  of  the  original  in  the 
British  Museum  measures  20f  inches  by  13.  The  Puritans  of  England  saw 
with  dismay  the  growing  cordiality  between  James  I.  and  the  Spanish  court, 
and  watched  with  just  apprehension  the  visit  of  Prince  Charles  to  Spain,  and 
the  prospect  of  a marriage  between  the  heir-apparent  and  a Spanish  princess. 
At  this  alarming  crisis,  1621,  the  sheet  was  composed  in  England,  and  sent 
over  to  Holland  to  be  engraved  and  printed,  Holland  being  then,  and  for  a 
hundred  and  fifty  years  after,  the  printing-house  and  type-foundry  of  Northern 
Europe.  Some  of  the  Pilgrim  Fathers  of  Massachusetts,  then  residing  at  Ley- 
den, and  still  waiting  to  hear  the  first  news  of  the  3Iayflower  company,  who 
had  sailed  the  year  before,  may  have  borne  a hand  in  the  work.  Pastor  Rob- 
inson, we  know,  gained  part  of  his  livelihood  by  co-operating  with  brethren  in 
England  in  the  preparation  of  works  designed  for  distribution  at  home. 

Besides  being  one  of  the  most  characteristic  specimens  of  Puritan  carica- 
ture which  have  been  preserved,  it  presents  to  us  a resume  of  history,  as  Prot- 


* Prom  Malcolm,  who  copied  it  from  the  original  in  the  British  Museum.  See  Malcolm’s 
“Caricaturing,”  plate  22. 


96 


CAKICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


estants  interpreted  it,  from  the  time  of  the  Spanish  Armada  to  that  of  Guy 
Fawkes — 1588  to  1605.  It  appears  to  have  been  designed  for  circulation  in 
Holland  and  Germany  as  well  as  in  England,  as  the  words  and  verses  upon  it 
are  in  English,  Dutch,  and  Latin.  The  English  lines  are  these : 

“In  Eighty-eight,  Spayne,  arm’d  with  potent  might, 

Against  onr  peacefull  Land  came  on  to  fight; 

But  windes  and  waves  and  fire  in  one  conspire, 

To  help  the  English,  frustrate  Spaynes  desire. 

To  second  that  the  Pope  in  counsell  sitts, 

Eor  some  rare  stratagem  they  strayne  their  witts ; 

November’s  5th,  by  powder  they  decree 
Great  Brytanes  state  ruinate  should  bee. 

But  Hee,  whose  never-slumb’ring  Eye  did  view 
The  dire  intendments  of  this  damned  crew, 

Did  soone  prevent  what  they  did  thinke  most  sure. 

Thy  mercyes,  Lord!  for  evermore  endure.” 

This  interesting  sheet  was  devised  by  Samuel  Ward,  a Puritan  preacher  of 
Ipswich,  of  great  zeal  and  celebrity,  who  dedicated  it,  in  the  fashion  of  the 
day,  thus : 

“To  God.  In  memorye  of  his  double  deliveraunce  from  y®  invincible  Navie  and  y®  unmatche- 
able  powder  Treason,  1G05.” 

It  was  a timely  reminder.  As  we  occasionally  see  in  our  own  day  a public 
man  committing  the  absurdity  of  replying  in  a serious  strain  to  a caricature, 
so,  in  1621,  the  Spanish  embassador  in  Loudon,  Count  Gondornar,  called  the 
attention  of  the  British  Government  to  this  engraving,  complaining  that  it  was 
calculated  to  revive  the  old  antipathy  of  the  English  people  to  the  Spanish 
monarchy.  The  obsequious  lords  of  the  Privy  Council  summoned  Samuel 
Ward  to  appear  before  them.  After  examining  him,  they  remanded  him  to 
the  custod}^  of  their  messenger,  whose  house  was  a place  of  confinement  for 
such  prisoners;  and  there  he  remained.  As  there  was  yet  no  habeas  corpus 
act  known  among  men,  he  could  only  protest  his  innocence  of  any  ill  designs 
upon  the  Spanish  monarchy,  and  humbly  petition  for  release.  He  petitioned 
first  the  Privy  Council;  and  they  proving  obdurate,  he  petitioned  the  king. 
He  was  set  free  at  last,  and  he  remained  for  twenty  years  a thorn  in  the  side 
of  tliose  who  dreaded  “Spayne  and  Rome”  less  than  they  hated  Puritans  and 
Parliaments. 

This  persecution  of  Samuel  Ward  gave  his  print  such  celebrity  that  several 
imitations  or  pirated  editions  of  the  work  speedily  appeared,  of  which  four  are 
preserved  in  the  great  collection  of  the  British  Museum,  each  differing  from 
the  original  in  details.  Caricatures  aimed  directly  at  the  Spanish  embassador 
followed,  but  they  are  only  remarkable  for  the  explanatory  words  which  ac- 
company them.  In  one  we  read  that  the  residence  of  Count  Gondornar  in 
England  had  “hung  before  the  eyes  of  many  good  men  like  a prodigious 


IN  THE  PURITAN  PERIOD. 


97 


comet,  threatening  worse  effects  to  Church  and  State  than  this  other  comet,” 
which  had  recently  menaced  both  from  the  vault  of  heaven.  ‘‘No  ecclipse  of 
the  sunne,”  continues  the  writer,  “ could  more  damnifie  the  earth,  to  make  it 
barraine  and  the  best  things  abortive,  than  did  his  interposition.”  We  learn 
also  that  when  the  count  left  England  for  a visit  to  his  own  country,  in  1618, 
“there  was  an  uproare  and  assault  a day  or  two  before  his  departure  from 
London  by  the  Apprentices,  who  seemed  greedy  of  such  an  occasion  to  vent 
their  own  spleenes  in  doing  him  or  any  of  his  a mischiefe.”  Another  picture 
exhibits  the  odious  Gondomar  giving  an  account  of  his  conduct  in  England  to 
the  “ Spanishe  Parliament,”  in  the  course  of  which  he  attributes  the  British  ab- 
horrence of  Spain  to  such  men  as  “Ward  of  Ipswich,”  whom  he  describes  as 
“light  and  unstayed  wits,”  intent  on  winning  the  airy  applause  of  the  vulgar, 
and  to  raise  their  desperate  fortunes.  Nor  does  he  refrain  from  chuckling 
over  the  penalty  inflicted  upon  that  enemy  of  Spayne  and  Rome:  “And  I 
think  that  Ward  of  Ipswich  escaped  not  safely  for  his  lewed  and  profane  pict- 
ure of  ’88  and  their  Powder  Treason,  one  whereof,  my  Lord  Archbishop,  I sent 
you  in  a letter,  that  you  might  see  the  malice  of  these  detestable  Heretiques 
against  his  Holiness  and  the  Catholic  Church.”  This  broadsheet  being  enti- 
tled “Vox  Populi,”the  writer  concludes  his  explanation  by  styling  the  embas- 
sador “Fox  Populi,  Count  Gondomar  the  Great.” 

Ward  of  Ipswich  .continued  to  be  heard  from  occasionally  during  the  first 
years  of  the  reign  of  Charles  I.  Ips- 


wich itself  acquired  a certain  celebrity 
as  a Puritan  centre,  and  the  name  was 
given  during  the  life-time  of  Samuel 
Ward  to  a town  in  Massachusetts,  which 
is  still  thriving.  One  of  his  sermons 
upon  drunkenness  was  illustrated  by  a 
picture,  of  which  a copy  is  given  here,* 
designed  to  show  the  degeneracy  of  man- 
ners that  had  taken  place  in  England  in 
his  day.  Mr.  Chatto  truly  remarks  that 
twenty  years  later  the  picture  would 
have  been  more  appropriate  with  the  in- 
scriptions transposed.  ^ 

The  marriage  of  Charles  I.  with  the  From  Title-page  to 
Princess  Henrietta  of  France,  in  1625, 
was  one  of  the  long  series  of  impolitic  acts  which  the  king  expiated  on  the 
scaffold  in  1649.  It  aggravated  every  propensity  of  his  nature  that  was  hos- 
tile to  the  liberties  of  the  people.  Under  James  I.  the  elite  of  the  Puritans 
had  fled  to  Holland,  and  a little  company  had  sought  a more  permanent  refuge 


Sermon,  “Woe  to  Drunk- 
ares,”  BY  Samuel  Ward,  of  Ipbwioh,  1627. 


From  Chatto’s  “Origin  and  History  of  Playing  Cards,”  p.  131,  London,  1848. 

7 


98 


CAEICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


on  the  coast  of  'New  England.  During  the  early  years  of  the  reign  of  Charles, 
the  persecution  of  the  Puritans  by  his  savage  bishops  became  so  cruel  and  so 
vigilant  as  to  induce  men  of  family  and  fortune,  like  Winthrop  and  his  friends, 
accompanied  by  a fleet  of  vessels  laden  with  virtuous  and  thoughtful  families, 
to  cross  the  ocean  and  settle  in  Massachusetts.  Boston  was  founded  when 
Charles  I.  had  been  cutting  off  the  ears  and  slitting  the  noses  of  Puritans  for 
five  years.  All  that  enchanting  shore  of  New  England,  with  its  gleaming 
beaches,  and  emerald  isles,  and  jutting  capes  of  granite  and  wild  roses,  now  so 
dear  to  summer  visitors — an  eternal  holiday-ground  and  resting-place  for  the 
people  of  North  America — began  to  be  dotted  with  villages,  the  names  of 
which  tell  us  what  English  towns  were  most  renowned  for  the  Puritan  spirit 
two  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago.  The  satirical  pictures  preserved  in  the  Brit- 
ish Museum  which  relate  to  events  in  earlier  reigns  number  ninety-nine  in  all ; 
but  those  suggested  by  events  in  the  reign  of  Charles  I.  are  nearly  seven  hun- 
dred in  number.  Most  of  them,  however,  were  not  published  until  after  the 
downfall  of  the  king. 

Several  of  these  prints  are  little  more  than  portraits  of  the  conspicuous 
persons  of  the  time,  with  profuse  accounts  on  the  same  sheet  of  their  suffer- 
ings or  misdeeds.  One  such  records  the  heroic  endurance  of  “ the  Reverend 
Peter  Smart,  mr  of  Artes,  minister  of  God’s  word  at  Durham,”  who,  for 
preaching  against  popery,  lost  above  three  hundred  pounds  per  annum,  and 
was  imprisoned  eleven  years  in  the  King’s  Bench.  The  composer  adds  these 
lines : 

“Peter  preach  downe  vaine  rites  with  flagrant  harte: 

Thy  Guerdon  shall  be  greate,  though  heare  thou  Smart.” 

Another  of  these  portrait  pieces  exhibits  Dr.  Alexander  Leighton,  who 
spoke  of  Queen  Henrietta  as  “ the  daughter  of  Hell,  a Canaanite,  and  an  idol- 
atresse,”  and  spared  not  Archbishop  Laud  and  his  confederates.  For  these 
offenses  he  was,  as  the  draughtsman  informs  us,  “ clapt  up  in  Newgate  for 
the  space  of  15  weekes,  where  he  suffered  great  miserie  and  sicknes  almost  to 
death,  afterward  lost  one  of  his  Fares  on  the  pillorie,  had  one  of  his  nosthrills 
slitt  clean  through,  was  whipt  with  a whip  of  3 Coardes  knotted,  had  36  lashes 
therewith,  was  fined  1000/^.,  and  kept  prisoner  in  the  fleet  12  yeares,  where  he 
was  most  cruelly  used  a long  time,  being  lodged  day  and  night  amongst  the 
most  desperately  wiked  villaines  of  y®  whole  prison.”  He  was  also  branded 
on  the  cheek  with  the  letters  S.  S. — sower  of  sedition.  Several  other  prints 
of  the  time  record  the  same  mark  of  attention  paid  by  the  “martyred”  king 
to  his  Catholic  wife.  By-and-by,  the  crowned  and  mitred  ruffians  who  did 
such  deeds  as  these  being  themselves  in  durance.  Parliament  set  Dr.  Leighton 
free,  and  made  him  a grant  of  six  thousand  pounds. 

A caricature  of  the  same  bloody  period  is  entitled,  “Archbishop  Laud  din- 
ing on  the  Ears  of  Prynne,  Bastwick,  and  Burton.”  We  see  Laud  seated  at 
dinner,  having  an  ear  on  the  point  of  his  knife  and  three  more  ears  in  the  plate 


IN  THE  PURITAN  PERIOD. 


99 


before  him,  the  three  victims  of  his  cruelty  standing  about,  and  two  armed 
bishops  at  the  foot  of  the  table.  The  dialogue  below  represents  Laud  as  re- 
jecting with  scorn  all  the  dainties  of  his  table,  and  declaring  that  nothing  will 
content  him  but  the  ears  of  Lawyer  Prynne  and  Dr.  Bastwick.  He  cuts  them 
off  himself,  and  orders  them  to  be  dressed  for  his  supper. 

“ Canterbury.  This  I doe  to  make  you  examples, 

That  others  may  be  more  careful  to  please  my  palate. 

Henceforth  let  my  servants  know,  that  what  I will,  I will  have  done, 

What  ere  is  under  heaven’s  Sunne.” 

A burst  of  caricature  heralded  the  coming  triumph  of  the  Puritans  in  1640, 
the  year  of  the  impeachment  of  the  Earl  of  Strafford.  Many  of  the  pictures 
recorded  both  the  sufferings  and  the  joyful  deliverance  of  the  Puritan  clergy- 
men. Thus  we  have  in  one  of  them  a glowing  account  of  the  return  of  the 
three  gentlemen  whose  ears  furnished  a repast  for  the  Archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury. They  had  been  imprisoned  for  many  years  in  the  Channel  Islands,  from 
which  they  were  conveyed  to  Dartmouth,  and  thence  to  London,  hailed  with 
acclamations  of  delight  and  welcome  in  every  village  through  which  they 
passed.  All  the  expenses  of  their  long  journey  were  paid  for  them,  and  pres- 
ents of  value  were  thrust  upon  them  as  they  rode  by.  Within  a few  miles  of 
London  they  were  met  by  such  a concourse  of  vehicles,  horsemen,  and  people 
that  it  was  with  great  difficulty  they  could  travel  a mile  in  an  hour.  But 
when  at  length,  in  the  evening,  they  reached  the  city,  masses  of  enthusiastic 
people  blocked  the  streets, 
crying,  “Welcome  home! 
welcome  home  !”  and  strew- 
ing flowere  and  rosemary 
before  them.  Thousands 
of  the  people  carried  torch- 
es, which  rendered  the 
streets  lighter  than  the  day. 

They  were  three  hours  in 
making  their  way  through 
the  crowd  from  Charing 
Cross  to  their  lodgings  in 
the  city,  a distance  of  a 
mile. 

It  was  during  the  exal- 
tation of  the  years  preced- 
ing the  civil  w^ar  that  such 
pictures  appeared  as  the 
one  here  given,  urging  a 
union  between  the  Church 
of  England  and  the  Church 


Let  not  the  World  devide  those  whom  Christ  hath  joined.” 


100 


CARICATUKE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


of  Scotland  against  the  foe  of  both.  This  is  copied  from  an  original  im- 
pression in  the  collection  of  the  New  York  Historical  Society. 

The  caricaturists  pursued  Laud  and  Strafford  even  to  the  scaffold.  The 
archbishop  was  the  author  of  a work  entitled  Canons  and  Institutions  Ec- 
clesiastical,” in  which  he  gave  expression  to  his  extreme  High-church  opinions. 
In  1640  the  victorious  House  of  Commons  canceled  the  canons  adopted  from 
this  work,  and  fined  the  clergy  who  had  sat  in  the  Convocation.  A caricature 
quickly  appeared,  called  “Archbishop  Laud  firing  a Cannon,”  in  which  the  can- 
non is  represented  as  bursting,  and  its  fragments  endangering  the  clergymen 
standing  near.  Laud’s  committal  to  the  Tower  was  the  occasion  of  many 
broadsheets,  one  of  which  exhibits  him  fastened  to  a staple  in  a wall,  with  a 
long  string  of  taunting  stanzas  below : 

“Reader,  I know  thou  canst  not  choose  but  smile 
To  see  a Bishop  tide  thus  to  a ring! 

Yea,  such  a princely  prelate,  that  ere  while 
Could  three  at  once  in  Limbo  patrum  fling ; 

Suspend  by  hundreds  where  his  worship  pleased. 

And  them  that  preached  too  oft  by  silence  eas’d ; 

“ Made  Laws  and  Canons,  like  a King  (at  least)  ; 

Devis’d  new  oaths  ; forc’d  men  to  sweare  to  lies ! 

Advanc’d  his  lordly  power  ’bove  all  the  rest. 

And  then  our  Lazie  Priests  began  to  rise ; 

But  painfull  ministers,  which  plide  their  place 
With  diligence,  went  downe  the  wind  apace. 

“Our  honest  Round  heads  too  then  went  to  racke  ; 

The  holy  sisters  into  corners  fled  ; 

Cobblers  and  Weavers  preacht  in  Tubs  for  lacke 
Of  better  Pulpits  ; with  a sacke  instead 
Of  Pulpit-cloth,  hung  round  in  decent  wise. 

All  which  the  spirit  did  for  their  good  devise. 

“Barnes,  Cellers,  Cole-holes,  were  their  meeting-places, 

So  sorely  were  these  babes  of  Christ  abus’d. 

Where  he  that  most  Church-government  disgraces 
Is  most  esteem’d,  and  with  most  reverence  us’d. 

It  being  their  sole  intent  religiously 
To  rattle  against  the  Bishops’  dignity. 

“Brother,  saies  one,  what  doe  you  thinke,  I pray, 

Of  these  proud  Prelates,  which  so  lofty  are  ? 

Truly,  saies  he,  meere  Antichrists  are  they. 

Thus  as  they  parle,  before  they  be  aware, 

Perhaps  a Pursuivant  slips  in  behind. 

And  makes  ’em  run  like  hares  before  the  wind. 

“A  yeere  agone  ’tad  been  a hanging  matter 
T’ave  writ  (nay,  spoke)  a word  ’gainst  little  Will ; 


IN  THE  PURITAN  PERIOD. 


101 


But  now  the  times  are  chang’d,  men  scorne  to  flatter ; 

So  much  the  worse  for  Canterbury  still, 

Por  if  that  truth  come  once  to  rule  the  roast, 

No  mar’le  to  see  him  tide  up  to  a post. 

‘ ‘ By  wicked  counsels  faine  he  would  have  set 
The  Scots  and  us  together  by  the  eares  ; 

A Patriark’s  place  the  Levite  long’d  to  get, 

To  sit  bith’  Pope  in  one  of  Peter’s  chaires. 

And  having  drunke  so  deepe  of  Babels  cup, 

Was  it  not  time,  d’ee  think,  to  chaine  him  up  ?” 

In  these  stanzas  are  roughly  given  the  leading  counts  of  the  popular  indict- 
ment against  Archbishop  Laud.  Other  prints  present  him  to  us  in  the  Tower 
with  a halter  round  his  neck ; and,  again,  we  see  him  in  a bird-cage,  with  the 
queen’s  Catholic  confessor,  the  two  being  popularly  regarded  as  birds  of  a 
feather.  In  another,  a stout  carpenter  is  holding  Laud’s  nose  to  a grindstone, 
while  the  carpenter’s  boy  turns  the  handle,  and  the  archbishop  cries  for  mepcy : 

“ Such  turning  will  soon  deform  my  face ; 

Oh ! I bleed,  I bleed ! and  am  extremely  sore.” 

But  the  carpenter  reminds  him  that  the  various  ears  that  he  had  caused  to  be 
cut  off  were  quite  as  precious  to  their  owners  as  his  nose  is  to  him.  A Jesuit 
enters  with  a vessel  of  holy  water  with  which  to  wash  the  extremely  sore  nose. 
One  broadsheet  represents  Laud  in  consultation  with  his  physician,  who  ad- 
ministers an  emetic  that  causes  him  to  throw  off  his  stomach  several  heavy 
articles  which  had  been  troubling  him  for  years.  First,  the  “ Tobacco  Patent” 
comes  up  with  a terrible  wrench.  As  each  article  appears,  the  doctor  and  his 
patient  converse  upon  it : 

Doctor.  What’s  this?  A book?  Whosoever  hath  bin  at  church  may  exercise  lawful  recrea- 
tions on  Sunday.  What’s  the  meaning  of  this  ? 

Canterbury.  ’Tis  the  booke  for  Pastimes  on  the  Sunday,  which  I caused  to  be  made.  But 
hold ! here  comes  something.  What  is  it  ? 

'■'■Doctor.  ’Tis  another  book.  The  title  is,  ‘Sunday  no  Sabbath.’  Did  you  cause  this  to  be 
made  also  ? 

"Canterbury.  No;  Doctor  Pocklington  made  it;  but  I licensed  it. 

^ "Doctor.  But  what’s  this?  A paper  ’tis;  if  I be  not  mistaken,  a Star-Chamber  order  made 
against  Mr.  Prinne,  Mr.  Burton,  and  Dr.  Bastwicke.  Had  you  any  hand  in  this? 

"Canterbury.  I had.  I had.  All  England  knoweth  it.  But,  oh,  here  comes  up  something 
that  makes  my  very  back  ake ! O that  it  were  up  once ! Now  it  is  up,  I thank  Heaven ! 

"Doctor.  ’Tis  a great  bundle  of  papers,  of  presentations  and  suspensions.  These  were  the  in- 
struments, my  lord,  wherewith  you  created  the  tongue-tied  Doctors,  and  gave  them  great  Benefices 
in  the  Country  to  preach  some  twice  a year  at  the  least,  and  in  their  place  to  hire  some  journey- 
man Curate,  who  will  only  read  a Sermon  in  the  forenoone,  and  in  the  afternoone  be  drunke,  with 
his  parishioners  for  company.” 

By  the  same  painful  process  the  archbishop  is  delivered  of  his  ‘‘Book  of 
Canons,”  and  finally  of  his  mitre;  upon  which  the  doctor  says,  “Nay,  if  the 
miter  be  come,  the  Divell  is  not  far  off.  Farewell,  my  good  lord.” 


102 


CAKICATUEE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


There  still  exist  in  various  collections  more  than  a hundred  prints  relating 
directly  to  Archbishop  Laud,  several  of  which  give  burlesque  representations 
of  his  execution.  There  are  some  that  show  him  asleep,  and  visited  by  the 
ghosts  of  those  whom  he  had  persecuted,  each  addressing  him  in  turn,  as  the 
victims  of  Richard  III.  spoke  to  their  destroyer  on  Bos  worth  Field.  One  of 
the  print  makers,  however,  relented  at  the  spectacle  of  an  old  man,  seventy-two 
years  of  age,  brought  to  the  block.  He  exhibits  the  archbishop  speaking  to 
the  crowd  from  the  scaffold  : 

“ Lend  me  but  one  poore  teare,  when  thow  do’st  see 
This  wretched  portraict  of  just  miserie. 

I was  Great  Innovator,  Tyran,  Foe 

To  Church  and  State ; all  Times  shall  call  me  so. 

But  since  I’m  Thunder-stricken  to  the  Ground, 

Learn  how  to  stand  : insult  not  ore  my  wound.” 

This  one  poor  stanza  alone  among  the  popular  utterances  of  the  time  shows 
that  any  soul  in  England  was  touched  by  the  cruel  fanatic’s  bloody  end. 

During  the  civil  war  and  the  government  of  Cromwell,  1642  to  1660,  nine 
in  ten  of  all  the  satirical  prints  that  have  been  preserved  are  on  the  Puritan 
side.  A great  number  of  them  were  aimed  at  the  Welsh,  whose  brogue  seems 
to  have  been  a standing  resource  with  the  mirth-makers  of  that  period,  as  the 

Irish  is  at  present.  The  wild  roystering  ways  of 
the  Cavaliers,  their  debauchery  and  license,  fur- 
nished subjects.  The  cruelties  practiced  by  Prince 
Rupert  suggested  the  annexed  illustration,  in 
which  the  author  endeavored  to  show  “ the  cruell 
Impieties  of  Blood-thirsty  Royalists  and  blasphe- 
mous Anti-Parliamentarians  under  the  Command 
of  that  inhumane  Prince  Rupert,  Digby,  and  the 
rest,  wherein  the  barbarous  Crueltie  of  our  Civill 
iincivill  Warres  is  briefly  discovered.”  Beneath 
the  portrait  of  England’s  wolf  are  various  narra- 
tives of  his  bloody  deeds.  One  picture  exhibits 
the  plundering  habits  of  the  mercenaries  on  the 
side  of  the  king  in  Ireland.  A soldier  is  repre- 
sented armed  and  equipped  with  the  utensils  that 
appertain  to  good  forage : on  his  head  a three- 
legged  pot,  hanging  from  his  side  a duck,  a spit 
with  a goose  on  it  held  in  his  left  hand  as  a mus- 
“ England’s  Wolfe  with  Eagle’s  ^ dripping-pan  Oil  liis  ami  as  a shield,  a hay- 

Clawes”  (Prince  Kupeet),  1647.  ri.i.-ii  t r • ^ • c 

fork  m his  right  hand  for  a rest,  with  a string  or 
sausages  for  a match,  a long  artichoke  at  his  side  for  a sword,  bottles  of  canary 
suspended  from  his  belt,  slices  of  toast  for  shoe-strings,  and  two  black  pots  at 
his  garters.  This  picture  may  have  been  called  forth  by  an  item  in  a news-let- 


1; 


IN  THE  PURITAN  PERIOD. 


103 


ter  of  1641,  wherein  it  was  stated  that  such  ‘‘great  store  of  pilidges”  was 
daily  brought  into  Drogheda  that  a cow  could  be  bought  there  for  five  shil- 
lings and  a horse  for  twelve. 

The  abortive  attempt  of  Charles  IT.,  after  the  execution  of  his  father,  to 
unite  the  Scots  under  his  sceptre,  and  by  their  aid  place  himself  upon 
the  throne  of  England,  called 
forth  the  caricature  annexed, 
in  which  an  old  device  is  put 
to  a new  use.  A large  num- 
ber of  verses  explain  the  pict- 
ure, though  they  begin  by  de- 
claring : 

‘ ‘ This  Embleme  needs  no  learned  Ex- 
position ; 

The  World  knows  well  enough  the 
sad  condition 

Of  regal  Power  and  Prerogative. 

Dead  and  dethron’d  in  England^  now 

Charles  II.  ajsd  the  Sootoii  Peesbytebians,  1G51. 

In  Scotland,  vibare  they  seeme  to  Come  to  the  grinstone,  Charles ; ’tls  now  too  late 

To  recolect,  ’tis  presbiterian  fate. 

ovetie  a , ^ ^ “Xmgf.  Yon  Covenant  pretenders,  must  I bee 

If  hee  1 be  more  obsequmus  than  his  subject  of  your  Tradgie  Comedie  ? 


Dad, 

And  act  according  to  Kirk  Princi- 
ples, 

More  subtile  than  were  Delphic  Ora- 
cles.” 


'■‘■Jockey.  I,  Jockey,  turue  the  stone  of  all  your  plots. 

For  none  turnes  faster  than  the  turne-coat  Scots. 

'■‘•Presbyter.  We  for  our  ends  did  make  thee  king,  be  sure, 
Not  to  rule  us,  we  will  not  that  endure. 

King.  You  deep  dissemblers,  I know  what  jmu  doe. 

And,  for  revenges  sake,  I will  dissemble  too.” 


In  the  verses  that  follow  there  is  to  be  found  one  of  the  few  explicit  jus- 
tifications of  the  execution  of  Charles  I.  that  the  lighter  literature  of  the  Com- 

O 

monwealth  affords : 


“But  Lav)  and  Justice  at  the  last  being  done 
"X.  On  the  hated  Father,  now  they  love  the  Son.” 

The  poet  also  taunts  the  Scots  with  having  fii’st  stirred  up  the  English  to  “doe 
Heroick  Justice”  on  the  late  king, and  then  adopting  the  heir  on  condition  of 
his  giving  their  Church  the  same  fell  supremacy  which  Laud  had  claimed  for 
the  Church  of  England. 

The  Ironsides  of  Cromwell  soon  accomplished  the  caricaturist’s  prediction : 

“But  this  religious  mock  we  all  shall  see. 

Will  soone  the  downfall  of  their  Babel  be.” 

We  find  the  pencil  and  the  pen  of  the  satirist  next  employed  in  exhibiting  the 
young  king  fleeing  in  various  ludicrous  disguises  before  his  enemies. 

An  interesting  caricature  published  during  the  civil  w^ars  aimed  to  cast 


104 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


back  upon  the  Malignants  the  ridicule  implied  in  the  nickname  of  Roundhead 
as  applied  to  the  Puritans.  It  contained  figures  of  three  ecclesiastics,  “ Sound- 
head, Rattle-head,  and  Round-head.”  Sound-head,  a minister  sound  in  the 
Puritan  faith,  hands  a Bible  to  Rattle-head,  a personage  meant  for  Laud,  half 
bishop  and  half  Jesuit.  On  the  other  side  is  the  genuine  Round-head,  a monk 
with  shorn  pate,  who  presents  to  Rattle -head  a crucifix,  and  points  to  a mon- 
astery. Rattle -head  rejects  the  Bible,  and  receives  the  crucifix.  Over  the 
figures  is  written : 

“ See  heer,  Malignants  Foolerie 
Retorted  on  them  properly, 

The  Sound-head,  Round-head,  Rattle-head, 

Well  placed,  where  best  is  merited.” 

Below  are  other  verses  in  which,  of  course,  Rattle -head  and  Round -head 
are  belabored  in  the  thorough -going,  root-and-branch  manner  of  the  time. 
Atheist  and  Arminian  being  used  as  synonymous  terms : 

“See  heer,  the  Rattle-heads  most  Rotten  Heart, 

Acting  the  Atheists  or  Arminians  part.” 

In  looking  over  the  broadsheets  of  that  stirring  period,  we  are  struck  by 
the  absence  of  the  mighty  Name  that  must  have  been  uppermost  in  every 
mind  and  oftenest  on  every  tongue — that  of  the  Lord  Protector,  Oliver  Crom- 
well. A few  caricatures  were  executed  in  Holland,  in  which  The  General  ” 
and  “Oliver”  and  “The  Protector”  were  weakly  satirized;  but  as  most  of  the 
plates  in  that  age  were  made  to  serve  various  purposes,  and  were  frequently 
altered  and  redated,  it  is  not  certain  that  any  of  them  were  circulated  in 
England  during  Cromwell’s  life-time.  English  draughtsmen  produced  a few 
pictures  in  which  the  Protector  was  favorably  depicted  dissolving  the  Long 
Parliament,  but  their  efforts  were  not  remarkable  either  with  pen  or  pencil. 
The  Protector  may  have  relished,  and  Bunyan  may  have  written,  the  verses 
that  accompanied  some  of  them : 

“Full  twelve  years  and  more  these  Rooks  they  have  sat 
to  gull  and  to  cozen  all  true-hearted  People ; 

Our  Gold  and  our  Silver  has  made  them  so  fat 

that  they  lookt  more  big  and  mighty  than  Paul’s  Steeple.” 

The  Puritans  handled  the  sword  more  skillfully  than  the  pen,  and  the  roy- 
alists were  not  disposed  to  satire  during  the  rule  of  the  Ironside  chief.  The 
only  great  writer  of  the  Puritan  age  on  the  Puritan  side  was  Milton,  and  he 
was  one  of  the  two  or  three  great  writers  who  have  shown  little  sense  of 
humor. 


LATER  PURITAN  CARICATURE. 


105 


CHAPTER  X. 

LATER  PURITAN  CARICATURE. 


WIIAT  a change  came  over  the  spirit  of  English  art  and  literature  at  the 
Restoration  in  1660  ! P^orty  years  before,  when  James  I.  was  king,  who 
loathed  a Puritan,  there  was 
occasionally  published  a print 
in  which  Puritans  were  treat- 
ed in  the  manner  of  Hudibras. 

There  was  one  of  1612  in 
which  a crown  was  half  cov- 
ered by  a broad-brimmed  hat, 
with  verses  reflecting  upon 
“the  aspiring,  factious  Puri- 
tan,” who  presumed  to  “ over- 
looke  his  king.”  There  was 
one  in  1636,  in  the  reign  of 
Charles  L,  aimed  at  “ two  in- 
famous upstart  prophets,” 
weavers,  then  in  Xewgate  for 
heresy,  which  contains  a de- 
scription of  a Puritan  at 
'church,  which  is  entirely  in 
the  spirit  of  Hudibras : 

“ His  seat  in  the  church  is 
where  he  may  be  most  scene. 

In  the  time  of  the  Sermon  he 
drawes  out  his  tables  to  take 
the  Notes,  but  still  noting  who 
observes  him  to  take  them. 

At  every  place  of  Scripture 
cited  he  turnes  over  the  leaves 
of  his  Booke,  more  pleased 

with  the  motion  of  the  leaves  C^^^-okoss  Khymes  on  Loye’s  Ceosseb,  1640.  (Musarum,  306.) 

than  the  matter  of  the  Text;  For  he  folds  downe  the  leaves  though  he  finds 
not  the  place.  Hee  lifts  up  the  whites  of  his  eyes  towards  Heaven  when  hee 


^'Ui 'inis'  ^ 

1- 

k 

r 

■■ 

1 

1 

1 

to 

106 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


meditates  on  the  sordid  pleasures  of  the  earth ; his  body  being  in  God’s 
Church,  when  his  mind  is  in  the  divel’s  Chappell.” 

Again,  in  1647,  two  years  before  the  execution  of  Charles,  an  extensive  and 
elaborate  sheet  appeared,  in  which  the  ignorant  preachers  of  the  day  were  held 
up  to  opprobrium.  Each  of  these  “ erronious,  hereticall,  and  Mechannick  spir- 
its” was  exhibited  practicing  his  trade,  and  a multitude  of  verses  below  de- 
scribed the  heresies  which  such  teachers  promulgated. 

“Oxford  and  Cambridge  make  poore  Preachers; 

Each  shop  affordeth  better  Teachers : 

Oh  blessed  Reformation!” 

Among  the  “mechannick  spirits”  presented  in  this  sheet  we  remark  “Bar- 
bone,  the  Lether- seller,”  who  figures  in  many  later  prints  as  “Barebones.” 
There  are  also  “ Bulcher,  a Chicken  man  ;”  “ Henshaw,  a Confectioner,  alias  an 
Infectioner ;”  “ Duper,  a Cowkeeper;”  “Lamb,  a Sope-boyler,”  and  a dozen 
more. 

Such  pictures,  however,  were  few  and  far  between  during  the  twenty  years 
of  Puritan  ascendency.  But  when  the  rule  of  the  Sound-head  was  at  an  end, 
and  Rattle -head  had  once  more  the  dispensing  of  preferment  in  Church  and 
State,  the  press  teemed  with  broadsheets  reviling  the  Puritan  heroes.  The 
gorgeous  funeral  of  the  Protector— his  body  borne  in  state  on  a velvet  bed, 
clad  in  royal  robes,  to  Westminster  Abbey,  where  a magnificent  tomb  rose 
over  his  remains  — was  still  fresh  in  the  recollection  of  the  people  of  London 
when  they  saw  the  same  body  torn  from  its  resting-place,  and  hung  on  Tyburn 
Hill  from  nine  in  the  morning  until  six  in  the  evening,  and  then  cast  into  a 
deep  pit.  Thousands  who  saw  his  royal  funeral  looked  upon  his  body  swing- 
ing from  the  gallows.  The  caricatures  vividly  mark  the  change.  Cromwell 
now  appears  only  as  tyrant,  antichrist,  hypocrite,  monster.  Charles  I.  is  the 
holy  martyr.  His  son’s  flight  in  disguise,  the  hiding  in  the  oak-tree,  and  other 
circumstances  of  his  escape  are  no  longer  ignominious  or  laughable,  but  grace- 
ful and  glorious. 

A cherished  fiction  appears  frequently  in  the  caricatures  that  no  man  came 
to  a good  end  who  had  had  any  hand  in  the  king’s  execution,  not  even  the  ex- 
ecutioner nor  the  humblest  of  his  assistants.  On  one  sheet  we  read  of  a cer- 
tain drum-maker,  named  Tench,  who  “provided  roapes,  pullies,  and  hookes  (in 
case  the  king  resisted)  to  compel  and  force  him  down  to  the  block.”  “This 
roague  is  also  haunted  with  a Devill,  and  consumes  away.”  There  was  the 
confession,  too,  of  the  hangman,  who,  being  about  to  depart  this  life,  declared 
that  he  had  solemnly  vowed  not  to  perform  his  office  upon  the  king,  but  had 
nevertheless  dealt  the  fatal  blow,  trembling  from  head  to  foot.  Thirty  pounds 
had  been  his  reward,  which  was  paid  him  in  half-crown  pieces  within  an  hour 
after  the  execution — the  dearest  money,  as  he  told  his  wife,  that  he  had  ever 
received,  for  it  would  cost  him  his  life,  “ which  propheticall  words  were  soon 


LATER  PURITAN  CARICATURE. 


107 


made  manifest,  for  it  appeared  that,  ever  since,  he  had  been  in  a most  sad  con- 
dition, and  lay  raging  and  swearing,  and  still  pointing  at  one  thing  or  another 
which  he  conceived  to  appear  visible  before  him.” 

Richard  Cromwell  was  let  off  as  easily  by  the  caricaturist  as  he  was  by  the 
king.  He  is  depicted  as  the  meek  knight,”  the  mild  incapable,  hardly  worth 
a parting  kick.  In  one  very  good  picture  he  is  a cooper  hammering  away 
with  a mallet  at  a cask,  from  which  a number  of  owls  escape,  most  of  which, 
as  they  take  their  flight,  cry  out,  ^^King  P’’  Richard  protests  that  he  knows 
nothing  of  this  trade  of  cooper,  for  the  more  he  hammers,  the  more  the  barrel 


SnROVE-TIT)E  IN  AeM8  AGAINST  LeNT,  A.T>.  1660. 


breaks  up.  Elizabeth,  the  wife  of  the  Protector,  figured  in  a ludicrous  manner 
upon  the  cover  of  a cookery-book  published  in  the  reign  of  Charles  II.,  the 
preface  of  which  contained  anecdotes  of  the  kitchen  over  which  she  had  pre- 
sided. 

Among  other  indications  of  change  in  the  public  feeling,  we  notice  a few 
pictures  conceived  in  the  pure  spirit  of  gayety,  designed  to  afford  pleasure  to 
every  one,  and  pain  to  no  one.  Two  of  these  are  given  here — Shrove-tide  and 
Lent  tilting  at  one  another — which  were  thought  amazingly  ingenious  and 
comic  two  hundred  years  ago.  They  are  quite  in  the  taste  of  the  period  that 


108 


CAEICATUKE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


produced  them.  Shrove- 
tide, in  the  calendar  of 
Rome,  is  the  Tuesday  be- 
fore Lent,  a day  on  which 
many  people  gave  them- 
selves up  to  revelry  and 
feasting,  in  anticipation 
of  the  forty  days’  fast. 
Shrove-tide  accordingly  is 
mounted  on  a fat  ox,  and 
his  sword  is  sheathed  in 
a pig  and  piece  of  meat, 
with  capons  and  bottles 
of  wine  about  his  body^ 
His  flag,  as  we  learn  from 
the  explanatory  verses,  is 
“ a cooke’s  foule  apron 
fix’d  to  a broome,”  and  his 
helmet  “ a brasse  pot.” 
Lent,  on  the  contrary^ 
flings  to  the  breeze  a fish- 
ing-net, carries  an  angling-rod  for  a weapon,  and  wears  upon  his  head  a boyl- 
ing  kettle.”  Thus  accoutred,  these  mortal  foes  approach  one  another,  and  Lent 
lifts  up  his  voice  and  proclaims  his  intention : 

“ I now  am  come  to  mundifie  and  cleare 
The  base  abuses  of  this  last  past  yeare : 

Thou  puff-pauncb’d  monster  (Shrovetyde),  thou  art  he 
That  were  ordain’d  the  latter  end  to  be 
Of  forty-five  weekes’  gluttony,  now  past, 

Which  I in  seaven  weekes  come  to  cleanse  at  last : 

Your  feasting  I will  turn  to  fasting  dyet ; 

Your  cookes  shall  have  some  leasure  to  be  quiet ; 

Your  masques,  pomps,  playes,  and  all  your  vaine  expence, 

I’ll  change  to  sorrow,  and  to  penitence.  ” 

Shrove-tide  replies  valiantly  to  these  brave  words: 

“What  art  thou,  thou  leane-jawde  anottamie. 

All  spirit  (for  I no  flesh  upon  thee  spie) ; 

Thou  bragging  peece  of  ayre  and  smoke,  that  prat’st. 

And  all  good-fellowship  and  friendship  hat’st; 

You’le  turn  our  feasts  to  fasts ! when,  can  you  tell  ? 

Against  your  spight,  we  are  provided  well. 

Thou  sayst  thou’lt  ease  the  cookes! — the  cookes  could  wish 
Thee  boyl’d  or  broyl’d  with  all  thy  frothy  fish ; 

For  one  fish-dinner  takes  more  paines  and  cost 
Than  three  of  flesh,  bak’d,  roast,  or  boyl’d,  almost.” 


Lent  tilting  at  Shrove-tide,  a.d.  1660. 


LATER  PURITAN  CARICATURE. 


109 


This  \ye  are  compelled  to  regard  as  about  the  best  fun  our  ancestors  of 
1660  were  capable  of  achieving  with  pencil  and  pen.  Nor  can  we  claim  much 
for  their  pictures  which  aim  to  satirize  the  vices. 

The  joy  of  the  English  people  at  the  restoration  of  the  monarchy,  which 
seemed  at  first  to  be  as  universal  as  it  was  enthusiastic,  was  of  short  dura- 
tion. The  Stuarts  were  the  Bourbons  of  England,  incapable  of  being  taught 
by  adversity.  Within  two  years  Charles  II.  alarmed  Protestant  England  by 
marrying  a Portuguese  princess.  The  great  plague  of  1665,  that  destroyed 
in  London  alone  sixty-eight  thousand  persons,  was  followed  in  the  very  next 
year  by  the  great  fire  of  London,  which  consumed  thirteen  thousand  two  hun- 
dred houses.  At  a moment  when  the  public  mind  was  reduced  to  the  most 
abject  credulity  by  such  events  as  these,  the  scoundrel  Titus  Oates  appeared, 
declaring  that  the  dread  calamities  which  had  afflicted  England,  and  others 
then  imminent,  were  only  parts  of  an  awful  Popish  Plot^  which  aimed  at  the 
destruction  of  the  king  and  the  restoration  of  the  Catholic  religion.  A short 
time  after,  1678,  Sir  Edmundsbury  Godfrey,  the  magistrate  before  whom  Titus 
Oates  made  his  deposition,  was  found 
dead  in  a field  near  London,  the  victim 
probably  of  some  fanatic  assassin  of 
the  Catholic  party.  The  kingdom  was 
thrown  into  an  ecstacy  of  terror,  from 
which,  as  before  observed,  it  has  not  to 
this  day  wholly  recovered.  Terror  may 
lurk  in  the  blood  of  a race  ages  after 
the  removal  of  its  cause,  as  we  find  our 
sensitive  horses  shying  from  low-lying 
objects  at  the  road-side,  though  a thou- 
sand generations  may  have  peacefully 
labored  and  died  since  their  ancestors 
crouched  from  the  spring  of  a veritable 
wild  beast.  The  broadsheets  of  that 
year,  1678,  and  of  the  troublous  years 
following,  even  until  William  of  Or- 
ange was  seated  on  the  throne  of  En- 


Tiie  Queen  op  James  II.  and  Father  Petre. 


“ It  is  a foolish  sheep  that  makes  the  wolf  her  con- 
fessor.” (1685.) 


gland,  in  1690,  have,  we  may  almost  say, 
but  one  topic — the  Popish  Plot.  The 
spirit  of  that  period  lives  in  those  sheets. 

It  had  been  a custom  in  England  to  celebrate  the  l7th  of  November,  the 
day,  as  one  sheet  has  it,  on  which  the  unfortunate  Queen  Mary  died,  and  “ that 
Glorious  Sun,  Queen  Elizabeth,  of  happy  memory,  arose  in  the  English  horizon, 
and  thereby  dispelled  those  thick  fogs  and  mists  of  Romish  blindness,  and  re- 
stored to  these  kingdoms  their  just  Rights  both  as  men  and  Christians.”  The 
next  recurrence  of  this  anniversary  after  the  murder  of  Godfrey  was  seized  by 


110 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


the  Protestants  of  London  to  arrange  a procession  which  was  itself  a striking 
caricature.  A pictorial  representation  of  the  procession  is  manifestly  impossi- 
ble here,  but  we  can  copy  the  list  of  objects  as  given  on  a broadsheet  issued  a 
few  days  after  the  event.  This  device  of  a procession,  borrowed  from  Catho- 
lic times,  was  continually  employed  to  promulgate  and  emphasize  Protestant 
ideas  down  to  a recent  period,  and  has  been  used  for  political  objects  in  our 
own  day.  How  changed  the  thoughts  of  men  since  Albert  Diirer  witnessed 
the  grand  and  gay  procession  at  Antwerp,  in  honor  of  the  Virgin’s  Assump- 
tion, one  hundred  and  fifty-nine  years  before!  The  I7th  of  November,  1679, 
was  ushered  in,  at  three  o’clock  in  the  morning,  by  a burst  of  bell-ringing  all 
over  London.  The  broadsheet  thus  quaintly  describes  the  procession : 

‘‘About  Five  o’clock  in  the  Evening,  all  things  being  in  readiness,  the  Sol- 
emn Procession  began,  in  the  following  Order:  I.  Marched  six  Whifiers  to 
clear  the  way,  in  Pioneers  Caps  and  Red  Waistcoats  (and  carrying  torches). 
II.  A Bellman  Ringing,  who,  with  a Loud  and  Dolesom  Voice  cried  all  the 
way,  Remember  Justice  Godfrey.  III.  A Dead  Body  representing  Sir  Ed- 
mundbury  Godfrey,  in  the  Habit  he  usually  wore,  the  Cravat  wherewith  he 
was  murdered  about  his  Neck,  with  spots  of  Blood  on  his  Wrists,  Shirt,  and 
white  Gloves  that  were  on  his  hands,  his  Face  pale  and  wan,  riding  on  a White 
Horse,  and  one  of  his  Murderers  behind  him  to  keep  him  from  falling,  repre- 
senting the  manner  how  he  was  carried  from  Somerset  House  to  Primrose  Hill. 
IV.  A Priest  in  a Surplice,  with  a Cope  Embroidered  with  Dead  mens  Bones, 
Skeletons,  Skills,  &c.,  giving  pardons  very  freely  to  those  who  would  murder 
Protestants,  and  proclaiming  it  Meritorious.  V.  A Priest  alone,  in  Black,  with 
a large  Silver  Cross.  VI.  Four  Carmelite  Friers  in  White  and  Black  Habits. 
VH.  Four  Grey  Friars  in  their  proper  Habits.  VHI.  Six  Jesuits  with  Bloody 
Daggers.  IX.  A Consort  of  Wind-musick,  call’d  the  Waits.  X.  Four  Popish 
Bishops  in  Purple  and  Lawn  Sleeves,  with  Golden  Crosses  on  their  Breasts. 
XI.  Four  other  Popish  Bishops  in  their  Pontificalibus,  with  Surplices,  Rich 
Embroydered  Copes,  and  Golden  Miters  on  their  Heads.  XH.  Six  Cardinals 
in  Scarlet  Robes  and  Red  Caps.  XIII.  The  Popes  Chief  Physitian  with  Jes- 
uites  Powder  in  one  hand,  and  a in  the  other.  XIV.  Two  Priests  in  Sur- 

plices, with  two  Golden  Crosses.  Lastly,  the  Pope  in  a Lofty  Glorious  Pag- 
eant, representing  a Chair  of  State,  covered  with  Scarlet,  the  Chair  richly  em- 
broydered, fringed,  and  bedeckt  with  Golden  Balls  and  Crosses ; at  his  feet  a 
Cushion  of  State,  two  Boys  in  Surplices,  with  white  Silk  Banners  and  Red 
Crosses,  and  Bloody  Daggers  for  Murdering  Heritical  Kings  and  Princes, 
painted  on  them,  with  an  Incense-pot  before  them,  sate  on  each  side  censing 
his  Holiness,  who  was  arrayed  in  a rich  Scarlet  Gown,  Lined  through  with 
Ermin,  and  adorned  with  Gold  and  Silver  Lace,  on  his  Head  a Triple  Crown 
of  Gold,  and  a Glorious  Collar  of  Gold  and  precious  stones,  St.  Peters  Keys, 
a number  of  Beads,  Agnus  Dei’s  and  other  Catholick  Trumpery ; at  his  Back 
stood  his  Holiness’s  Privy  Councellor,  the  Devil,  frequently  caressing,  hugging, 


LATER  PURITAN  CARICATURE. 


Ill 


and  whispering,  and  oft-times  instructing  him  aloud,  to  destroy  His  Majesty, 
to  forge  a Protestant  Plot,  and  to  fire  the  City  again ; to  which  purpose  he 
held  an  Infernal  Torch  in  his  hand.  The  whole  Procession  was  attended  with 
150  Flambeaus  and  Torches  by  order;  but  so  many  more  came  in  Voluntiers 
as  made  up  some  thousands.  Never  were  the  Balconies,  Windows  and  Houses 
more  numerously  filled,  nor  the  Streets  closer  throng’d  with  multitudes  of  Peo- 
ple, all  expressing  their  abhorrence  of  Popery  with  continual  Shouts  and  Ac- 
clamations.” 

With  slow  and  solemn  step  the  procession  marched  to  Temple  Bar,  then 
just  rebuilt,  and  there  it  halted,  while  a dialogue  in  verse  was  sung  in  parts 
by  one  who  represented  the  English  Cardinal  Howard,  and  one  the  people 
of  England.”  We  can  imagine  the  manner  in  which  the  crowd  would  come 
thundering  in  with 

“Now  God  preserve  Great  Charles  our  King, 

And  eke  all  honest  men  ; 

And  Tray  tors  all  to  justice  bring, 

Amen!  Amen  I Amen!” 

Fire -works  succeeded  the  song,  after  which  “his  Holiness  was  decently 
tumbled  from  all  his  grandeur  into  the  impartial  flames,”  while  the  people 
gave  so  prodigious  a shout  that  it  was  heard  “far  beyond  Somerset  House.” 
For  many  years  a similar  pageant  was  given  in  London  on  the  same  day. 

As  an  additional  illustration  of  the  feeling  which  then  prevailed  in  Puritan 
circles,  I will  copy  the  rude  and  doleful  rhymes  which  accompany  a popular 
print  of  1680,  called  “The  Dreadful  Apparition;  or,  the  Pope  haunted  with 
Ghosts.”  Coleman,  Whitebread,  and  Harcourt,  who  figure  among  the  ghosts, 
had  been  recently  executed  as  “ popish  plotters.”  The  picture  shows  the  Pope 
in  bed,  to  whom  the  devil  conducts  Coleman,  and  an  angel  leads  the  spirit  of 
Sir  Edmundsbury  Godfrey.  Whitebread  and  Harcourt  are  in  shrouds.  A 
bishop,  a cardinal,  and  other  figures  are  seen.  A label  issuing  from  the 
mouth  of  each  of  the  persons  represented  contains  the  rhymes  which  follow: 

THE  POPE  IN  BED. 

Away  I Away  ! am  not  I Pope  of  Rome, 
torment  me  not  before  my  time  is  Come." 

THE  DEVIL,  IN  THE  FORM  OP  A DRAGON. 

’‘‘‘Your  Sevt  S’"!  Ned  Coleman  doth  appeare 
he'll  tell  you  all,  therefore  I brought  him  here," 

Coleman’s  ghost. 

“ S'^  you  are  Cause  of  my  Continuall  paine, 

My  Soul  is  Lost,  for  your  Ambitious  gaine." 

Godfrey’s  ghost,  introduced  by  . 

“ Repent  great  and  be  for  ever  blest, 

in  Heaven  with  me  that  happy  place  of  rest." 


112 


CAEICATURE  AND  COMIC  AET. 


ANGEL,  IN  A “ROMAN  SHAPE.” 

“0  Chariety  ! who  mercy  craves  for  those: 

With  Bluddy  hands  that  ware  his  Cruell  foes." 

whitebread’s  ghost,  with  a sword  through  the  body. 

“/  am  perplexed  with  perpetuall  fright ; 
but  who  is  this  apeares  this  dreadful  night." 

harcourt’s  ghost,  with  a sword  through  the  body. 

^^'Tis  Godfrey's  Ghost  I wish  all  things  be  well 
that  we  may  have  our  Pope  of  Rome  in  hell." 

A BISHOP. 

“ Let  us  depart  and  Shun  their  cruell  fate^ 
and  all  repent  before  it  is  to  late." 

CARDINAL. 

“ Come  let  us  fiie  with  all  the  Speed  we  may, 

Ye  Devil  els  will  take  us  all  away." 

Below  the  picture  are  the  verses  subjoined : 

NUNCIO. 

“ Horrors  and  Death ! what  dismal  Sights  Invade 
His  Nightly  Slumbers,  who  in  Blood  does  Trade. 

The  Ghostly  Apparitions  of  the  Dead ; 

The  Bless' d by  Angels  ; Damn'd  by  Demons  Lead ; 

’Tis  sure,  Romes  Conclave  must  Amazed  stand. 

When  Souls  Complaining,  thus  against  them  band; 

Who  All  but  One  to  please  Ambitious  Eome, 

Have  Gain’d  Damnation  for  Their  Final  Doom. 

Hear  how  They  Curse  Him  all,  but  He  who  fell 
Great  Brittains  Sacrifice  by  Imps  of  Hell ; 

Who  shew’d  Their  Bloody  Vengeance  in  the  Strife, 

To  Murther  Him,  who  Business  had  for  Life." 

POPE. 

^ How  do  my  Eye-Balls  Roul,  and  Blood  run  back. 

What  Tortures  at  this  sight  my  Conscience  Rack; 

Oh  ! Mountains  now  fall  on  me,  some  Deep  Cave 
Pitty  me  once,  and  prove  my  speedy  Grave. 

Involv'd  in  Darkness, /rom  the  Seated  Light, 

Let  Me  abscond  in  Everlasting  Night. 

Torment  me  not ; you  Shades,  before  my  time, 

I do  confess,  your  Downfalls  was  my  Crime ; 

To  Satiate  my  Ambition  and  Eevenge, 

I push'd  you  on  to  this  Immortal  Change. 

But  Ah!  fresh  Horrors,  Ah!  my  Power's  grown  weak. 

What  art  thou  Fiend?  fro?n  whence  ? or  where  ? O Speak; 


LATER  PURITAN  CARICATURE. 


113 


That  in  this  Frightful  Form^  a Dragon’s  hew 
Presents  One  Sainted^  to  my  Trembling  View  ?" 

FIEND. 

“By  Hells  Grim  King’s  Command,  on  whom  I wait, 
I’ve  brought  your  Saint  his  Story  to  relate ; 

Who  from  the  black  Tartarian-Vive.  below, 

So  long  beg’d  Absence  as  to  let  you  know 
His  Torments,  and  the  Horrid  Cheat  condole, 

You  fix’d  on  him  to  Rob  him  of  his  Soul.” 

POPE. 

“ O spare  my  Ears^  I'll  no  such  Horrors  hear 

COLEMAN. 

“You  must,  and  know  your  own  Damnation’s  near: 
You  must  ere  long  be  Plung'd  in  Grizly  Flame, 
Which  I shall  laugh  to  see,  tho,  rack’d  with  pain 
Thou  Grand  Deceiver  of  the  Nations  All, 

Contriver  of  my  Wretched  Fate  and  Fall: 

Thou  who  didst  push  me  on  to  Murther  Kings 
Persuading  me  for  it  on  Angels  Wings 
I should  Transcend  the  Clouds,  be  ever  Blest, 

And  be  of  Al  that  Heav’n  cou’d  yield,  possest,  V 
But  these  I mist,  got  Torment  without  Rest:  ) 

For  whilst  on  Earth  I stand,  a Hell  within 
Distracts  my  Conscience,  pale  with  horrid  Sin : 
Instead  of  Mortals  Pardon,  One  on  High, 

I must  your  Everlasting  Martyr  Fry ; 

Whilst  Name  of  Saint  I bear  on  Earth,  below 
It  stirs  the  flames,  and  much  Augments  my  Woe." 

POPE. 

Horrors  ! 'tis  Dismal,  I can  hear  no  more, 

O ! Hell  and  Furies,  how  I have  lost  my  Pow'r.  ” 

SIR  E.  GODFREY. 

“See  Sir  this  Crimson  Stain,  this  baleful  Wound 
See  Murther’d  me,  with  Joys  Eternal  Crown’d  ; 
Though  by  the  Darkest  Deed  of  Night  I fell. 

Which  shook  Three  Kingdoms,  and  Astonish'd  Hell : 
Yet  rap’d  above  the  Skyes  to  Mansion  bright. 

There  to  Converse  with  Everlasting  Light ; 

Thence  got  I leave  to  View  thy  Wretched  Face, 

And  find  my  Death  thy  Hell-born  Plots  did  race, 
And  next  to  the  Almighty  Arm  did  Save 
Great  Albion's  Glory  from  its  yawning  Grave ; 

From  Sacred  Bliss  my  Swift- Soul  did  glide, 
Conducted  Hither  by  my  Angel-Guide, 

To  let  thee  know  thy  Sands  were  almost  run. 

And  that  thy  Thread  of  Life  is  well-nigh  Spun  ; 

8 


114 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


Repent  you  then,  Wash  off  the  Bloody  Stain, 

Or  You'll  be  Doom’d  to  Everlasting  Pain." 

ANGEL. 

“Come  Worthy  of  Seraphick  Joys  Above, 

Worthy  Our  Converse,  and  Our  Sacred  Love; 

Who  hast  Implor’d  the  Great  Jehove  for  One 
Who  Shed  thy  Blood,  to  Snatch  thy  Princes  Throne 
In  this  thy  Saviour  s Great  Examples  shown  : 

Come  let  Vs  hence,  and  leave  Him  to  his  Fate, 

When  Divine  Vengeance  shall  the  Business  State.” 

POPE. 

“ Chill  Horror  seizes  me,  I cannot  flye  ; 

Oh  Ghastly  ! yet  more  Apparitions  nigh  ?" 

WHITEBREAD. 

“ Thus  wandering  through  the  Gloomy  Shades,  at  last 
I’ve  found  Thee,  Traytor,  that  my  Joys  did  Blast, 

Whose  Darn'd  Jnjunctions,  Dire  Damnation  Seal’d, 

And  Torments  that  were  never  yet  Reveal’d  : 

Mirrihords  of  Plagues,  Chains,  Racks,  Tempestuous  Fire, 
Sulpherian  Lakes  that  Burn  and  ner  Expire, 

Deformed  Demons,  Uglier  far  than  Hell, 

The  Half  what  We  Endure,  no  Tongue  can  Tell ; 

This  for  a Bishoprick  I Undergo, 

But  Now  would  give  Earth's  Empire  wer't  not  so." 

POPE. 

^’‘Retire,  Good  Ghosts,  or  I shall  Dye  with  Fear." 

HARCOURT. 

“Nay  stay  Sir,  first  You  must  my  Story  Hear: 

How  could  you  thus  Delude  your  Bosome-Friend? 

Your  Foes  to  Heaven,  and  Vs  to  Hell  thus  send  ; 
Damnation  seize  You  for’t;  ere  long  You’ll  be 
Plung’d  Headlong  into  vast  Eternity  ; 

There  for  to  Howl,  whilst  We  some  Comfort  gain,  \ 

To  see  You  welter  in  an  endless  Pain,  ( 

And  without  justly  there  Complain.”  ) 

POPE. 

'•'•Ho  ! Cardinals  and  Bishops,  haste  with  speed, 

Bell,  Book,  and  Ci\\\(Ae  fetch,  let  me  he  free'd : 

Ah!  'tis  too  late,  by  Fear  Intranc’d  I lye." 

BISHOP. 

“ Heard  you  that  Groan  ? with  speed  from  hence  let’s  flye.” 

CARDINAL. 

“ The  Fiend  has  got  Him,  doubtless,  lets  away, 

And  in  this  Ghastly  place  no  longer  stay.” 


LATER  PURITAN  CARICATURE. 


115 


“Dread  Horrors  seize  me,  Fly,  for  Mercy  call, 

Least  Divine  Vengeance  over-whelm  Vs  all.'' 

It  was  ill  this  crude  and  lucid  way  that  the  forerunners  of  Gillray,  N’ast, 
Tenniel,  and  Leech  satirized  the  murderous  follies  of  their  age.  A volume 
larger  than  this  would  not  contain  the  verse  and  prose  that  covered  the 
broadsheets  in  the  same  style  which  appeared  in  London  during  the  reign 
of  Charles  II.  This  specimen,  however,  suffices  for  any  reader  who  is  not 
making  a special  study  of  the  period.  To  students  and  historians  the  col- 
lection of  these  prints  in  the  British  Museum  is  beyond  price ; for  they  show 
“ the  very  age  and  body  of  the  time,  his  form  and  pressure.”  Perhaps  no 
other  single  source  of  information  respecting  that  period  is  more  valuable. 

From  the  accession  of  William  and  Mary  we  notice  a change  in  the  sub- 
jects treated  by  caricaturists.  If  religion  continued  for  a time  to  be  the  prin- 
cipal theme,  there  was  more  variety  in  its  treatment.  Sects  became  more 
distinct ; the  Quakers  arose ; the  divergence  between  the  doctrines  of  Luther 
and  Calvin  was  more  marked,  and  gave  rise  to  much  discussion;  High  Church 
and  Low  Church  renewed  their  endless  contest ; the  Baptists  became  an  im- 
portant denomination ; deism  began  to  be  the  whispered,  and  became  soon  the 
vaunted  faith  of  men,  of  the  world ; even  the  voice  of  the  Jew  was  occasionally 
heard,  timidly  asking  for  a small  share  of  his  natural  rights.  It  is  interesting 
to  note  in  the  popular  broadsheets  and 
satirical  pictures  how  quickly  the  hu- 
man mind  began  to  exert  its  powers 
when  an  overshadowing  and  immedi- 
ate fear  of  pope  and  king  in  league 
against  liberty  had  been  removed  by 
the  flight  of  James  II.  and  the  happy 
accession  of  William  III. 

Political  caricature  rapidly  assumed 
prominence,  though,  as  long  as  Louis 
Xiy.  remained  on  the  throne  of  France, 
the  chief  aim  of  politics  was  to  create 
safeguards  against  the  possible  return 
of  the  Catholic  Stuarts.  The  acces- 
sion of  Queen  Anne,  the  career  of 
Bolingbroke  and  Harley,  the  splendid 
exploits  of  Marlborough,  the  early  con- 
flicts of  Whig  and  Tory,  the  attempts 
of  the  Pretenders,  the  peaceful  acces-  French  c Auic.vTURK  Of  Corpulent  General  Galas, 
sion  of  George  I.— all  these  are  exhib-  ^ less, 

ited  in  broadsheets  and  satirical  prints  still  preserved  in  more  than  one  col- 


116 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


lection.  Louis  XIV.,  his  pomps  and  his  vanities,  his  misfortunes  and  his  mis- 
tresses, furnished  subjects  for  hundreds  of  caricatures  both  in  England  and 
Holland.  It  was  on  a Dutch  caricature  of  1695  that  the  famous  retort  oc- 
curs of  the  Due  de  Luxembourg  to  an  exclamation  of  the  Prince  of  Orange. 
The  prince  impatiently  said,  after  a defeat,  “ Shall  I,  then,  never  be  able  to 
beat  that  hunchback?”  Luxembourg  replied  to  the  person  reporting  this, 
‘HIow  does  he  know  that  my  back  is  hunched?  He  has  never  seen  it.”  In- 
terspersed with  political  satires,  we  observe  an  increasing  number  upon  social 
and  literary  subjects.  The  transactions  of  learned  societies  were  now  impor- 


A Quaker  Meeting,  1710 — Aminidel  exhorting  Friknds  to  support  Sagiievereul. 

tant  enough  to  be  caricatured,  and  the  public  was  entertained  with  burlesque 
discourses,  illustrated,  upon  “ The  Invention  of  Samplers,”  “ The  Migration  of 
Cuckoos,”  ‘‘The  Eunuch’s  Child,”  “A  Xew  Method  of  teaching  Learned  Men 
how  to  write  Unintelligibly.”  There  was  an  essay,  also,  “proving  by  argu- 
ments philosophical  that  Millers,  though  falsely  so  reputed,  yet  in  reality  are 
not  thieves,  with  an  intervening  argument  that  Taylors  likewise  are  not  so.” 

A strange  episode  in  the  conflict  between  Whig  and  Tory  was  the  career 
of  Sacheverell,  a clergyman  who  preached  such  extreme  doctrines  concerning 


LATER  PURITAN  CARICATURE. 


117 


royal  and  ecclesiastical  prerogative  that  he  was  formally  censured  by  a Whig 
Parliament,  and  thus  lifted  into  a preposterous  importance.  During  his  tri- 
umphal tour,  which  Dr.  Johnson  remembered  as  one  of  the  events  of  his  ear- 
liest childhood,  he  was  escorted  by  voluntary  guards  that  numbered  from  one 
thousand  to  four  thousand  mounted  men,  wearing  the  Tory  badges  of  white 
knots  edged  with  gold,  and  in  their  hats  three  leaves  of  gilt  laurel.  The  pict- 
ure of  the  Quaker  meeting  reflects  upon  the  alliance  alleged  to  have  existed 
between  the  high  Tories  and  the  Quakers,  both  having  an  interest  in  the  re- 
moval of  disabilities,  and  hence  making  common  cause.  A curious  relic  of 
this  brief  delirium  is  a paragraph  in  the  Grub  Street  Journal  of  1736,  which 
records  the  death  of  Dame  Box,  a woman  so  zealous  for  the  Church  that  when 
Sacheverell  was  relieved  of  censure  she  clothed  herself  in  white,  kept  the 
clothes  all  her  life,  and  was  buried  in  them.  As  long  as  Dr.  Sacheverell  lived 
she  went  to  London  once  a yeai*,  and  carried  a present  of  a dozen  larks  to 
that  high-flying  priest.” 

The  flight  of  the  Huguenots  from  France,  in  1685  and  1686,  enriched  Hol- 
land, England,  and  the  American  colonies  with  the  elite  of  the  French  people. 
Holland  being  nearest  to  France,  and  honored  above  all  lands  for  nearly  a 
century  as  the  refuge  of  people  persecuted  for  opinions’  sake,  received  at  first 
the  greatest  number,  especially  of  the  class  who  could  live  by  intellectual  pur- 
suits. The  rarest  of  all  rarities  in  the  way  of  caricature,  “ the  diamond  of  the 
pictorial  library,”  is  a series  of  burlesque  portraits,  produced  in  Holland  in 
1686,  of  the  twenty-four  persons  most  guilty  of  procuring  the  revocation  of 
the  wise  edict  of  Henry  IV.,  which  secured  to  French  Protestants  the  right 
to  practice  their  religion.  The  work  was  entitled  “La  Procession  Monacale 
conduite  par  Louis  XIV.  pour  la  Conversion  des  Protestans  de  son  Royaume.” 
The  king,  accordingly,  leads  the  way,  his  face  a sun  in  a monk’s  cowl,  in  allu- 
sion to  his  adoption  of  the  sun  as  a device.  Madame  De  Maintenon,  his  mar- 
ried mistress,  hideously  caricatured,  follows.  Pere  la  Chaise,  and  all  the  eccle- 
siastics near  the  court  who  were  reputed  to  have  urged  on  the  ignorant  old 
king  to  this  superlative  folly,  had  their  place  in  the  procession.  Several  of  the 
faces  are  executed  with  a freedom  and  power  not  common  in  any  age,  but  at 
that  period  only  possible  to  a French  hand.  Two  specimens  are  given  on  the 
following  page. 

Louis  XIV.,  as  the  caricature  collections  alone  would  suffice  to  show,  was 
the  conspicuous  man  of  that  painful  period.  The  caricaturists  avenged  human 
nature.  Xo  man  of  the  time  called  forth  so  many  efforts  of  the  satiric  pencil, 
nor  was  there  ever  a person  better  adapted  to  the  satirist’s  purpose,  for'^he  fur- 
nished precisely  those  contrasts  which  satire  can  exhibit  most  effectively.  He 
stood  five  feet  four  in  his  stockings,  but  his  shoe- maker  put  four  inches  of 
leather  under  his  heels,  and  his  wig -maker  six  inches  of  other  people’s  hair 
upon  his  head,  which  gave  him  an  imposing  altitude.  The  beginning  of  his 
reign  was  prosperous  enough  to  give  some  slight  excuse  for  the  most  richly 


118 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


developed  arrogance  seen  in  the  world  since  Xerxes  lashed  the  Hellespont,  but 
the  last  third  of  his  reign  was  a collapse  that  could  easily  be  made  to  seem 
ludicrous.  There  were  very  obvious  contrasts  in  those  years  between  the 
splendors  of  his  barbaric  court  and  the  disgraceful  defeats  of  his  armies,  be- 
tween the  opinion  he  cherished  of  himself  and  the  contempt  in  which  he  was 
held  abroad,  between  the  adulations  of  his  courtiers  and  the  execrations  of 
France,  between  the  mass-attending  and  the  morals  of  the  court. 

The  caricaturists  made  the  most  of  these  points.  Every  town  that  he 
lost,  every  victory  that  Marlborough  won,  gave  them  an  opportunity  which 


Aiicunisuor  of  Paths— A Better  Friend  to  La-  Arcuhishop  of  Ruftms  — Mitred  Ass.  (Holland, 
DIES  THAN  TO  THE  Poi’E.  (Holluiid,  1686.  By  1686.  After  the  Expulsion  of  the  Huguenots.) 

an  Exiled  Huguenot.) 


they  improved.  We  have  him  as  a huge  yellow  sun,  each  ray  of  which  bears 
an  inscription  referring  to  some  defeat,  folly,  or  shame.  We  have  him  as  a 
jay,  covered  with  stolen  plumage,  which  his  enemies  are  plucking  from  him, 
each  feather  inscribed  with  the  name  of  a lost  city  or  fortress.  We  have 
him  as  the  Crier  of  Versailles,  crying  the  ships  lost  in  the  battle  of  La  Hogue, 
and  offering  rewards  for  their  recovery.  He  figures  as  the  Gallic  cock  flying 
before  that  wise  victorious  fox  of  England,  William  HI.,  and  as  a pompous 
drummer  leading  his  army,  and  attended  by  his  ladies  and  courtiers.  He  is 
an  old  French  Apollo  driving  the  sun,  in  wig  and  spectacles.  He  is  a tiger 
on  trial  before  the  other  beasts  for  his  cruel  depredations.  He  is  shorn  and 
fooled  by  Maintenon ; he  is  bridled  by  Queen  Anne.  He  is  shown  drinking 
a goblet  of  human  blood.  We  see  him  in  the  stocks  with  his  confederate, 
the  Pope,  and  the  devil  standing  behind,  knocking  their  heads  together.  He 
is  a sick  man  vomiting  up  towns.  He  is  a sawyer,  who,  with  the  help  of  the 
King  of  Spain,  saws  the  globe  in  two,  Maintenon  sitting  aloft  assisting  the 
severance.  As  long  as  he  lived  the  caricaturists  continued  to  assail  him  ; and 
when  he  died,  in  1715,  he  left  behind  him  a France  so  demoralized  and  im- 
poverished that  he  still  kept  the  satirists  busy. 


LATER  PURITAN  CARICATURE. 


•119 


Even  in  onr  own  time  Louis  XIV.  has  suggested  one  of  the  best  carica- 
tures ever  drawn,  and  it  is  accompanied  by  an  explanatory  essay  almost 
unique  among  prose  satires  for  bitter  wit  and  blasting  truth.  The  same  hand 
wielded  both  the  pen  and  the  pencil,  and  it  was  the  wonderful  hand  of  Thack- 
eray. “You  see  at  once,”  he  says,  in  explanation  of  the  picture,  “that  majes- 
ty is  made  out  of  the  wig,  the  high-heeled  shoes,  and  cloak,  all  jimrs-de-lis  be- 
spangled  Thus  do  barbers  and  cobblers  make  the  gods  that  we  wor- 

ship.” 


120 


CARICATUEE  AND  COMIC  AKT. 


CHAPTER  XI. 


PKECEDING  HOGAETH. 


IT  was  the  bubble  mania  of  1719  and  1720,  brought  upon  Europe  by  John 
Law,  which  completed  the  secularization  ” of  caricature.  Art,  as  well  as 
literature,  learning,  and  science,  was  subservient  to  religion  during  the  Middle 
Ages,  and  drew  its  chief  nourishment  from  Mother  Church.  Since  the  Refor- 
mation they  have  all  been  obliged  to  pass  through  a painful  process  of  wean- 
ing, and  each  in  turn  to  try  for  an  independent  existence.  The  bubble  frenzy, 
besides  giving  an  impulse  to  the  caricaturist’s  art  it  had  not  before  received, 
withdrew  attention  from 


Actieu.se  NACHT-VIND-ZangermetayaTover  Slons 


“Shakes!  Shakes!  Shakes!” 

The  Night  Share-ciier  and  his  Magic  Lantern.  A Caricature  of  John 
Law  and  his  Bubble  Schemes.  (Amsterdam,  1T20.) 


ecclesiastical  subjects,  and 
supplied  abundant  material 
drawn  from  sources  pure- 
ly mundane. 

Above  all,  the  pictures 
which  that  mania  called 
forth  assisted  to  form  the 
great  satiric  artist  of  his 
time  and  country,  William 
Hogarth.  He  was  a Lon- 
don apprentice  carving 
coats  of  arms  on  silver 
plate  when  the  early  symp- 
toms of  the  mania  appear- 
ed ; and  he  was  still  a very 
young  man,  an  engraver, 
feeling  his  way  to  the  ca- 
reer that  awaited  him, 
when  the  broadsheets  sat- 
irizing John  Law  began  to 
be  adapted  ” from  Dutch 
originals,  and  shown  in  the 
shop -windows  of  London. 
Doubtless  he  inspected  the 
picture  of  the  “Night 


PKECEDING  HOGAKTH. 


121 


Share-crier,”  opposite,  and  noticed  the  cock’s  feather  in  his  hat  (indicating  the 
French  origin  of  the  delusion),  and  the  windmill  upon  the  top  of  his  staff. 
The  Dutch  pictures  were  full  of  that  detail  and  by-play  of  which  Hogarth  was 
such  a master  in  later  years. 

Visitors  to  New  York  who  saw  tumultuous  Wall  Street  during  the  worst 
of  our  inflation  period,  and,  following  the  crowd  up-town,  entered  the  Gold- 
room,  where  the  wild  speculation  of  the  day  was  continued  till  midnight,  may 
have  flattered  themselves  that  they  were  looking  upon  scenes  never  before  ex- 
hibited in  this  world.  What  a strange  intensity  of  excitement  there  was  in 
those  surging  masses  of  young  men  ! What  fierce  outcries ! What  a melan- 
choly waste  of  youthful  energies,  so  much  needed  elsewhere ! But  there  was 
nothing  new  in  all  this,  except  that  we  passed  the  crisis  with  less  loss  and  less 
demoralization  than  any  community  ever  before  experienced  in  circumstances 
at  all  similar. 

When  Louis  XIV.  died  in  17 15,  after  his  reign  of  seventy-two  years,  he 
left  the  finances  of  France  in  a condition  of  inconceivable  disorder.  For  four- 
teen years  there  had  been  an  average  annual  deficit  of  more  than  fourteen  mill- 
ions of  francs,  to  meet  which  the  king  had  raised  money  by  every  paper  de- 
vice that  had  then  been  discovered.  Having  previously  sold  all  the  offices 
for  which  any  pretext  could  be  invented,  he  next  sold  annuities  of  all  kinds, 
for  one  life,  for  two  lives,  for  three  lives,  and  in  perpetuity.  Then  he  issued 
all  known  varieties  of  promises  to  pay,  from  rentes  perpetuelles  to  treasury- 
notes  of  a few  francs,  payable  on  demand.  But  there  w^as  one  thing  he  did 
not  do — reduce  the  expenditure  of  his  enormous  and  extravagant  court.  In 
the  midst  of  that  deficit,  when  his  ministers  were  at  their  wits’  end  to  carry 
on  the  government  from  day  to  day,  and  half  the  lackeys  of  Paris  held  the 
depreciated  royal  paper,  the  old  king  ordered  one  more  of  those  magnificent 
fetes  at  Fontainebleau  which  had,  as  he  thought,  shed  such  lustre  on  his  reign. 
The  fete  would  cost  four  millions,  the  treasury  was  empty,  and  treasury-notes 
had  fallen  to  thirty-five.  While  an  anxious  minister  was  meditating  the  situ- 
ation, he  chanced  to  see  in  his  inner  office  two  valets  slyly  scanning  the  papers 
on  his  desk,  for  the  purpose,  as  he  instantly  conjectured,  of  getting  news  for 
the  speculators.  He  conceived  an  idea.  The  next  time  those  enterprising  val- 
ets found  themselves  alone  in  the  same  cabinet,  they  were  so  happy  as  to  dis- 
cover on  the  desk  the  outlines  of  a royal  lottery  scheme  for  the  purpose  of 
paying  off  a certain  class  of  treasury-notes.  The  news  was  soon  felt  in  the 
street.  Those  notes  mysteriously  rose  in  a few  days  from  thirty-five  to  eiglUy- 
five;  and  while  they  were  at  that  point  the  minister,  anticipating  the  Fiskian 
era,  slipped  upon  the  market  thirty  millions  of  the  same  notes.  The  king  had 
his  fete;  and  when  next  he  borrowed  money  of  his  subjects,  for  every  twenty- 
five  francs  of  coin  he  was  obliged  to  give  a hundred-franc  note.* 


* “Law,  son  Systeme  et  son  Epoque,”  p.  2,  par  P.  A.  Cochiit,  Paris,  1853. 


122 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


Two  years  after,  the  foolish  old  king  died,  leaving,  besides  a consolidated 
debt  of  bewildering  magnitude,  a floating  debt,  then  due  and  overdue,  of  seven 
hundred  and  eighty-nine  millions,  equivalent,  as  M.  Cochut  computes,  to  about 
twice  the  amount  in  money  of  to-day.  Coin  had  vanished ; the  royal  paper 
was  at  twenty-flve;  the  treasury  was  void;  prices  were  distressingly  high; 
some  provinces  refused  to  pay  taxes;  trade  languished;  there  were  vast  num- 
bers of  workmen  unemployed;  and  during  the  winter  after  the  king’s  death  a 
considerable  number  of  persons  died  in  Paris  of  cold  and  hunger.  The  only 
prosperous  people  were  Government  contractors,  farmers  of  the  revenue,  bro- 
kers, and  speculators  in  the  king’s  paper ; and  these  classes  mocked  the  misery 
of  their  fellow-citizens  by  an  ostentatious  and  tasteless  profusion. 

The  natural  successor  of  a king  bigoted  is  a prince  dissolute.  The  regent, 


Island  of  Madhfad. 

“Picture  of  the  very  famon«  Island  of  Madhead.  Situated  in  Share  Sea,  and  inhabited  by  a multitude  of 
all  kinds  of  people,  to  which  is  given  the  general  name  of  Shareholders.”  (Amsterdam,  1720.) 


who  had  to  face  this  state  of  things  on  behalf  of  his  nephew,  Louis  XV.,  a 
child  of  five,  had  at  least  the  virtue  and  good  sense  to  reject  with  indignant 
scorn  the  proposition  made  in  his  council  by  one  member  to  declare  France 
bankrupt  and  begin  a new  reign  by  opening  a clean  set  of  books.  We,  too, 
had  our  single  repudiator,  who  fared  no  better  than  his  French  predecessor. 
But  the  regent’s  next  measures  were  worthy  of  a prodigal.  He  called  in  the 
various  kinds  of  public  paper,  and  offered  in  exchange  a new  variety,  called 
billets  cVetat^  bearing  interest  at  four  per  cent.  But  the  public  not  responding 
to  the  call,  the  new  bills  fell  to  forty  in  twenty-four  hours,  and  drew  down 


PRECEDING  HOGARTH. 


123 


all  other  public  paper,  until  in  a few  days  the  royal  promise  to  pay  one  hun- 
dred francs  was  worth  twenty  francs.  The  regent’s  coffers  did  not  fill.  That 
scarred  veterans  could  not  get  their  pensions  paid  was  an  evil  which  could 
be  borne ; but  the  regent  had  mistresses  to  appease ! 

Then  he  tried  a system  of  squeezing  the  rich  contractors  and  others  of  the 
vermin  class  who  batten  on  a sick  body-politic.  As  informers  were  to  have 
half  the  product  of  the  squeeze,  an  offended  lackey  had  only  to  denounce  his 
master,  to  get  him  tried  on  a charge  of  having  made  too  much  money.  Woe 
to  the  plebeian  who  was  convicted  of  this  crime ! Besides  being  despoiled  of 
his  property,  Paris  saw  him,  naked  to  the  shirt,  a rope  round  his  neck,  a peni- 
tential candle  in  his  handcuffed  hands,  tied  to  a dirty  cart  and  dragged  to  the 
pillory,  carrying  on  his  back  a large  label,  “Pluis^deker  of  the  People.” 
The  French  pillory  was  a revolving  platform,  so  that  all  the  crowd  had  an 
equal  chance  to  hurl  mud  and  execration  at  the  fixed  and  pallid  face.  Judge 
if  there  was  not  a making  haste  to  compound  with  a government  capable  of 
such  squeezing ! There  was  also  a mounting  in  hot  haste  to  get  out  of  such  a 
France.  One  lucky  merchant  crossed  the  frontier,  dressed  as  a peasant,  driv- 
ing a cart-load  of  straw,  under  which  was  a chest  of  gold.  A train  of  fourteen 
carts  loaded  with  barrels  of  wine  was  stopped,  and  in  each  barrel  a keg  of  gold 
was  found,  which  was  emptied  into  the  royal  treasury. 

The  universal  consternation  and  the  utter  paralysis  of  business  which  re- 
sulted from  these  violent  spoliations  may  be  imagined.  Six  thousand  persons 
were  tried,  who  confessed  to  the  possession  of  twelve  hundred  millions  of 
francs.  The  number  of  the  condemned  was  four  thousand  four  hundred  and 
ten,  and  the  sum  extorted  from  them  was,  nominally,  nearly  four  hundred 
millions,  of  which,  however,  less  than  one  hundred  millions  reached  the  treas- 
ury. It  was  easy  for  a rich  man  to  compound.  A person  condemned  to  dis- 
gorge twelve  hundred  thousand  francs  was  visited  by  a “great  lord.”  “Give 
me  three  hundred  thousand  francs,”  said  the  great  lord,  “ and  you  won’t  be 
troubled  for  the  rest.”  To  which  the  merchant  replied,  “ Really,  my  lord,  you 
come  too  late,  for  I have  already  made  a bargain  with  madame,  your  wife,  for 
a hundred  and  fifty  thousand.”  Thus  the  business  of  busy  and  frugal  France 
was  brought  to  a stand  without  relieving  the  Government.  The  royal  coffers 
would  not  fill ; the  deficit  widened ; the  royal  paper  still  declined ; the  poor 
were  hungry;  and,' oh,  horror ! the  regent’s  mistresses  pouted.  The  Govern- 
ment debased  the  coin.  But  that,  too,  proved  an  aggravation  of  the  evil. 

Such  was  that  ancien  regime  which  still  has  its  admirers;  such  are  the 
consequences  of  placing  a great  nation  under  the  rule  of  the  greatest  fool  in  it; 
and  such  were  the  circumstances  which  gave  the  Scotch  adventurer,  John  Law, 
his  opportunity  to  madden  and  despoil  France,  so  often  a prey  to  the  alien. 

Two  hundred  years  ago,  when  John  Law,  a rich  goldsmith’s  son,  was  a boy 
in  Edinburgh,  goldsmiths  were  dealers  in  coin  as  well  as  in  plate,  and  hence 
were  bankers  and  brokers  as  well  as  manufacturers.  They  borrowed,  lent,  ex- 


124 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


changed,  and  assayed  money,  and  therefore  possessed  whatever  knowledge  of 
finance  there  was  current  in  the  world.  It  was  in  his  father’s  counting-room 
that  John  Law  acquired  that  taste  for  financial  theories  and  combinations 
which  distinguished  him  even  in  his  youth.  But  the  sagacious  and  practical 
goldsmith  died  when  his  son  was  fourteen,  and  left  him  a large  inheritance  in 
land  and  money.  The  example  of  Louis  XIY.  and  Charles  II.  having  brought 
the  low  vices  into  high  fashion  throughout  Europe,  it  is  not  surprising  that 
Law’s  first  notoriety  should  have  been  owing  to  a duel  about  a mistress.  A 
man  of  fashion  in  Europe  in  Louis  XIY.’s  time  was  a creature  gorgeously  at- 
tired in  lace  and  velvet,  and  hung  about  with  ringlets  made  of  horse-hair,  who 
passed  his  days  in  showing  the  world  how  much  there  was  in  him  of  the  goat, 
the  monkey,  and  the  pig.  Law  had  the  impudence  to  establish  his  mistress  in 
a respectable  lodging-house,  which  led  to  his  being  challenged  by  a gentleman 
who  had  a sister  living  there.  Law  killed  his  man  on  the  field — not  fairly,” 
as  John  Evelyn  records — and  he  was  convicted  of  murder.  The  king  pardon- 
ed, but  detained  him  in  prison,  from  which  he  escaped,  went  to  the  Continent, 
and  resumed  his  career,  being  at  once  a man  of  fashion,  a gambler,  and  a con- 
noisseur in  finance.  He  used  to  attend  card  - parties,  followed  by  a footman 
carrying  two  bags,  each  containing  two  thousand  louis-d’ors,  and  once  during 
the  life-time  of  the  old  king  he  was  ordered  out  of  Paris  on  the  gi'ound  that  he 
understood  the  games  he  had  introduced  into  the  capital  too  wellP 

Twenty  years  elapsed  from  the  time  of  his  flight  from  a London  prison. 
He  was  forty-four  years  of  age,  possessed  nearly  a million  and  three-quarters 
of  francs  in  cash,  producible  on  the  green  cloth  at  a day’s  notice,  and  was  the 
most  plausible  talker  on  finance  in  Europe.  This  last  was  a bad  symptom, 
indeed,  for  it  is  well  known  that  men  who  remain  victors  in  finance,  who  really 
do  extricate  estates  and  countries  from  financial  difficulties,  are  not  apt  to  talk 
very  effectively  on  the  subject.  Successful  finance  is  little  more  than  paying 
your  debts  and  living  within  your  income,  neither  of  which  affords  material 
for  striking  rhetoric.  Alexander  Hamilton,  for  example,  talked  finance  in  a 
taking  manner;  but  it  was  Albert  Gallatin  who  quietly  reduced  the  country’s 
debt.  Fifteen  days  after  the  death  of  the  old  king.  Law  was  in  Paris  with  all 
that  he  possessed,  and  in  a few  months  he  was  deep  in  the  confidence  of  the 
regent.  His  fine  person,  his  winning  manners,  his  great  wealth,  his  constant 
good  fortune,  his  fluent  and  plausible  tongue,  his  popular  vices,  might  not 
have  sufficed  to  give  him  ascendency  if  he  had  not  added  to  these  the  peculiar 
force  that  is  derived  from  sincerity.  That  he  believed  in  his  own  system  ” is 
shown  by  his  risking  his  whole  fortune  in  it.  And  it  is  to  his  credit  that  the 
first  use  he  made  of  his  influence  was  to  show  that  the  spoliations,  the  debas- 
ing of  the  coin,  and  all  measures  that  inspired  terror,  and  thus  tightened  un- 
duly the  clutch  upon  capital,  could  not  but  aggravate  financial  distress. 

His  system  ” was  delightfully  simple.  Bear  in  mind  that  almost  every 
one  in  Paris  who  had  any  property  at  all  held  the  king’s  paper,  worth  one- 


PRECEDING  HOGARTH. 


125 


quarter  or  one-fifth  of  its  nominal  value.  Whatever  project  Law  set  on  foot, 
whether  a royal  bank,  a scheme  for  settling  and  trading  with  Louisiana,  for 
commerce  with  the  East  Indies,  or  farming  the  revenues,  any  one  could  buy 
shares'in  it  on  terms  like  these:  one-quarter  of  the  price  in  coin,  and  three- 
quarters  in  paper  at  its  nominal  value. 

The  sj^stem  was  not  immediately  successful,  and  it  was  only  in  the  teeth  of 
powerful  opposition  that  he  could  get  his  first  venture,  the  bank,  so  much  as 
authorized.  Mark  how  clearly  one  of  the  council,  the  Due  de  Saint-Simon, 
comprehended  the  weakness  of  a despotism  to  which  he  owed  his  personal  im- 
portance. “An  establishment,”  said  he,  “ of  the  kind  proposed  may  be  in  itself 
good ; but  it  is  so  only  in  a republic,  or  in  such  a monarchy  as  England,  where 
the  finances  are  controlled  absolutely  by  those  v^ho  furnish  the  money ^ and 
who  furnish  only  as  much  of  it  as  they  choose,  and  in  the  way  they  choose. 
But  in  a light  and  changing  government  like  that  of  France,  solidity  would 
be  necessarily  wanting,  since  a king  or,  in  his  name,  a mistress,  a minister,  fa- 
vorites, and,  still  more,  an  extreme  necessity,  could  overturn  the  bank,  which 
would  present  a temptation  at  once  too  great  and  too  easy.”  Law,  therefore, 
was  obliged  to  alter  his  plan,  and  give  his  bank  at  first  a board  of  directors 
not  connected  with  the  Government. 

Gradually  the  “system”  made  its  way.  The  royal  paper  beginning  to  rise 
in  value,  the  holders. were  in  good  humor,  and  disposed  to  buy  into  other  proj- 
ects on  similar  terms.  The  Louisiana  scheme  may  serve  as  an  example  of 
Law’s  method.  Six  years  before,  a great  merchant  of  Paris,  Antoine  Crozat, 
had  bought  from  the  old  king  the  exclusive  right  to  trade  with  a vast  un- 
known region  in  North  America  called  Louisiana;  but  after  five  years  of  effort 
and  loss  he  became  discouraged,  and  offered  to  sell  his  right  to  the  creator  of 
the  bank.  Law,  accepting  the  offer,  speedily  launched  a magnificent  scheme : 
capital  one  hundred  millions  of  francs,  in  shares  of  five  hundred  francs,  pur- 
chasable wholly  in  those  new  treasury -notes  bearing  four  per  cent,  interest, 
then  at  a discount  of  seventy  per  cent.  Maps  of  this  illimitable  virgin  land 
were  published.  Pictures  were  exhibited,  in  which  crowds  of  interesting 
naked  savages,  male  and  female,  were  seen  running  up  to  welcome  arriving 
Frenchmen;  and  under  the  engraving  a gaping  Paris  crowd  could  read,  “In 
this  land  are  seen  mountains  filled  with  gold,  silver,  copper,  lead,  quicksilver ; 
and  the  savages,  not  knowing  their  value,  gladly  exchange  pieces  of  gold  and 
silver  for  knives,  iron  pots,  a small  looking-glass,  or  even  a little  brandy.”  One 
picture  was  addressed  to  pious  souls ; for  even  at  that  early  day,  as  at  present, 
there  was  occasionally  observed  a curious  alliance  between  persons  engaged 
in  the  promotion  of  piety  and  those  employed  in  the  pushing  of  shares.  This 
work  exhibited  a group  of  Indians  kneeling  before  some  reverend  fathers  of 
the  Society  of  Jesus.  Lender  it  was  written,  “Indian  Idolaters  imploring 
Baptism,” 

The  excitement,  once  kindled,  was  stimulated  by  lying  announcements  of 


126 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


the  sailing  of  great  fleets  for  Louisiana  laden  with  merchandise  and  colonists ; 
of  the  arrival  of  vessels  with  freights  worth  ‘^millions of  the  establishment  of 
a silk-factory,  wherein  twelve  thousand  women  of  the  ISTatchez  tribe  were  em- 
ployed; of  the  bringing  of  Louisiana  ingots  to  the  Mint  to  be  assayed;  of  the 
discovery  in  Arkansas  of  a great  rock  of  emerald,  and  the  dispatch  of  Captain 
Laharpe  with  a file  of  twenty -two  men  to  take  possession  of  the  same.  In 
1718  Law  sent  engineers  to  Louisiana,  who  did  something  toward  laying  out 
its  future  capital,  which  he  named  New  Orleans,  in  honor  of  his  patron,  the 
regent. 

The  royal  paper  rose  rapidly  under  this  new  demand.  Other  schemes  fol- 
lowed, until  John  Law,  through  his  various  companies,  seemed  about  to  “run” 
the  kingdom  of  France  by  contract,  farming  all  its  revenues,  transacting  all 
its  commerce,  and,  best  of  all,  paying  all  its  debts  ! Madness  ruled  the  hour. 
The  depreciated  paper  rose,  rose,  and  still  rose ; reached  par ; went  beyond 
par,  until  gold  and  silver  were  at  a discount  of  ten  per  cent.  The  street  named 
Quincampoix,  the  centre  and  vortex  of  this  whirl  of  business,  a mere  lane  twen- 
ty feet  wide  and  a quarter  of  a mile  long,  was  crowded  with  excited  people 
from  morning  till  night,  and  far  into  the  night,  so  that  the  inhabitants  of  the 


PRECEDING  HOGARTH. 


127 


quarter  sent  to  the  police  a formal  complaint  that  they  could  get  no  sleep. 
^N'obles,  lackeys,  bishops,  monks,  merchants,  soldiers,  women,  pickpockets,  for- 
eigners, all  resorted  to  La  Hue,  panting,  yelling,  operating,  snatching  papers, 
counting  crowns,”  making  up  a scene  of  noisy  confusion  unexampled.  One 
man  hired  all  the  vacant  houses  in  the  street,  and  made  a fortune  by  subletting 
offices  and  desk-room,  even  placing  sentry-boxes  on  some  of  the  roofs,  and  let- 
ting them  at  a good  price.  The  excitement  spread  over  France,  reached  Hol- 
land, and  drew  to  Paris,  as  was  estimated  at  the  time,  five  hundred  thousand 
strangers,  places  in  the  public  vehicles  being  engaged  ‘Hwo  months  in  ad- 
vance,” and  commanding  a high  premium. 

There  were  the  most  extraordinary  acquisitions  of  fortune.  People  sud- 
denly enriched  were  called  Mississippiens^  and  they  behaved  as  the  victims  of 
sudden  wealth,  unearned,  usually  do.  Men  who  were  lackeys  one  week  kept 
lackeys  the  next.  A gar^on  of  a wine- shop  gained  twenty  millions.  A cob- 
bler, who  had  a stall  in  the  Rue  Quincampoix  made  of  four  planks,  cleared 
away  his  traps  and  let  his  boards  to  ladies  as  seats,  and  sold  pens,  paper,  and 
ink  to  operators,  making  two  hundred  francs  a day  by  both  trades.  Men  gain- 
ed money  by  hiring  out  their  backs  as  writing-desks,  bending  over  while  oper- 
ators wrote  out  their  contracts  and  calculations.  One  little  hunchback  made 
a hundred  and  fifty  thousand  francs  by  thus  serving  as  a piipitre  ambulant 
(strolling  desk),  and. a broad-shouldered  soldier  gained  money  enough  in  the 
same  way  to  buy  his  discharge  and  retire  to  the  country  upon  a pretty  farm. 
The  general  trade  of  the  city  was  stimulated  to  such  a degree  that  for  a while 
the  novel  spectacle  was  presented  of  a community  almost  every  member  of 
which  was  prosperous  beyond  his  hopes ; for  even  in  the  Rue  Quincampoix 
itself,  although  some  men  gained  more  money  than  others,  no  one  appeared  to 
lose  any  thing.  And  all  this  seemed  the  work  of  one  man,  the  great,  the  in- 
comparable “ Jean  Lass,”  as  he  was  then  called  in  Paris.  It  was  a social  dis- 
tinction to  be  able  to  say,  have  seen  him!”  His  carriage  could  with  dif- 
ficulty force  its  way  through  the  rapturous,  admiring  crowd.  Princes  and 
nobles  thronged  his  antechamber,  a duchess  publicly  kissed  his  hand,  and  the 
regent  made  him  controller-general  of  the  finances. 

This  madness  lasted  eight  months.  No  one  needs  to  be  told  what  followed 
it — how  a chill  first  came  over  the  feverish  street,  a vague  apprehension,  not 
confessed,  but  inspiring  a certain  wish  to  “ realize.”  Dread  word,  realize  ! 
The  tendency  to  realize  was  adroitly  checked  by  Law,  aided  by  operators  who 
desired  to  “ unload  ;”  but  the  unloading,  once  suspected,  converted  the  realizing 
tendency  into  a wild,  ungovernable  rush,  which  speedily  brought  ruin  to  thou- 
sands, and  long  prostration  upon  France.  John  Law,  who  in  December,  1719, 
was  the  idol  of  Paris,  ready  to  perish  of  his  celebrity,  escaped  with  difficulty 
from  the  kingdom  in  December,  1720,  hated,  despised,  impoverished,  to  resume 
his  career  as  elegant  gambler  in  the  drawing-rooms  of  Germany  and  Italy. 

As  the  “ system  ” collapsed  in  France,  it  acquired  vogue  in  England,  where, 


128 


CAEICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


also,  it  originated  in  the  desire  to  get  rid  of  the  public  debt  by  brilliant  finance 
instead  of  the  homely  and  troublesome  method  of  paying  it.  In  London,  be- 
sides the  original  South  Sea  Company  which  began  the  frenzy,  there  were 
started  in  the  course  of  a few  months  about  two  hundred  joint-stock  schemes, 
many  of  which,  as  given  in  Anderson’s  ‘‘  History  of  Commerce,”  are  of  almost 
incredible  absurdity.  The  sum  called  for  by  these  projects  was  three  hundred 
millions  of  pounds  sterling,  which  was  more  than  the  value  of  all  the  land  in 
Great  Britain.  Shares  in  Sir  Richard  Steele’s  “fish -pool  for  bringing  fresh 
fish  to  London  ” brought  one  hundred  and  sixty  pounds  a share ! Men  paid 
seventy  pounds  each  for  “ permits,”  which  gave  them  merely  the  privilege  of 
subscribing  to  a sail-cloth  manufacturing  company  not  yet  formed.  There 
was,  indeed,  a great  trade  in  “ permits  ” to  subscribe  to  companies  only  plan- 
ned. Here  are  a few  of  the  schemes : for  raising  hemp  in  Pennsylvania ; 
“ Puckle’s  machine  gun settling  the  Bahamas ; “ wrecks  to  be  fished  for  on 
the  Irish  coast;”  horse  and  cattle  insurance;  “insurance  and  improvement  of 
children’s  fortunes;”  “insurance  of  losses  by  servants;”  “insurance  against 
theft  and  robbery;”  insuring  remittances;  “to  make  salt-water  fresh;”  im- 
porting walnut-trees  from  Virginia;  improving  the  breed  of  horses;  purchas- 
ing forfeited  estates;  making  oil  from  sunflowers;  planting  mulberry-trees 
and  raising  silk- worms;  extracting  silver  from  lead;  making  quicksilver  mal- 
leable; capturing  pirates;  “for  importing  a number  of  large  jackasses  from 
Spain  in  order  to  propagate  a larger  kind  of  mules;”  trading  in  human  hair; 
“ for  fatting  of  hogs ;”  “ for  the  encouragement  of  the  industrious ;”  perpetual 
motion  ; making  pasteboard  ; furnishing  funerals. 

There  was  even  a company  formed  and  shares  sold  for  carrying  out  an 
“undertaking  which  shall  in  due  time  be  revealed.”  The  word  “puts,”  now 
so  familiar  in  Wall  Street,  appears  in  these  transactions  of  1720.  “Puts  and 
refusals”  were  sold  in  vast  amounts.  The  prices  paid  for  shares  during  the 
half  year  of  this  mania  were  as  remarkable  as  the  schemes  themselves.  South 
Sea  shares  of  a hundred  pounds  par  value  reached  a thousand  pounds.  It  was 
a poor  share  that  did  not  sell  at  five  times  its  original  price.  As  in  France, 
so  in  England,  the  long  heads,  like  Sir  Robert  Walpole  and  Alexander  Pope, 
began  to  think  of  “realizing”  when  they  had  gained  a thousand  per  cent,  or 
so  upon  their  ventures ; and,  in  a very  few  days,  realizing,  in  its  turn,  became 
a mania ; and  all  those  paper  fortunes  shrunk  and  crumpled  into  nothingness. 

So  many  caricatures  of  these  events  appeared  in  Amsterdam  and  London 
during  the  year  1720  that  the  collection  in  the  British  Museum,  after  the  lapse 
of  a hundred  and  fifty-five  years,  contains  more  than  a hundred  specimens.  I 
have  myself  eighty,  several  of  which  include  from  six  to  twenty-four  distinct 
designs.  Like  most  of  the  caricatures  of  that  period,  they  are  of  great  size, 
and  crowded  with  figures,  each  bearing  its  label  of  words,  with  a long  explana- 
tion in  verse  or  prose  at  the  bottom  of  the  sheet.  As  a rule,  they  are  destitute 
of  the  point  that  can  make  a satirical  picture  interesting  after  the  occasion  is 


PRECEDING  HOGARTH. 


129 


past.  In  one  we  see  the  interior  of  an  Exchange  filled  with  merchants  running 
wildly  about,  each  uttering  words  appropriate  to  the  situation:  “To-day  1 
have  gained  ten  thousand!”  “Who  has  money  to  lend  at  two  per  cent.?” 
“A  strait- jacket  is  what  I shall  want;”  “Damned  is  this  wind  business.” 
This  picture,  which  originated  in  Amsterdam,  is  called  “The  Wind -buyers 
paid  in  Wind,”  and  it  contains  at  the  bottom  three  columns  of  explanatory 
verse  in  Dutch,  of  which  the  following  is  the  purport: 

“ Come,  gentlemen,  weavers,  peasants,  tailors ! Whoever  has  relied  on 
wind  for  his  profit  can  find  his  picture  here.  They  rave  like  madmen.  See 

y/te-  re^{^me£Te7v  ~)fiL  is  rn  is  ^fen  'vmd de,  hap  is  by  tlo  ^is  . 


John  Law,  Wind  Monopolist.  (Amsterdam,  1720.) 

Law  loquitur.  The  wind  is  my  treasure,  cushion,  and  foundation.  Master  of  the  wind,  I am  master  of 
life,  and  my  wind  mon()j)oly  becomes  straightway  the  object  of  idolatry.  Less  rapidly  turn  the  sails  of  the 
windmill  on  my  head  than  the  price  of  shares  in  my  foolish  enterprises.” 

the  French,  the  English,  the  Hebrew,  and  Jack  of  Bremen  1 Hear  what  a 
scream  the  absurd  Dutch  are  making  on  the  exchange  of  Europe  1 There  is 
Fortune  throwing  down  some  charming  washes  to  silly  mortals,  wdiile  virtue, 
art,  and  intellect  are  despised  and  impoverished  in  the  land ; shops  and  count- 
ing-houses are  empty;  trade  is  ruined.  All  this  is  Quincampoix  !” 

The  Dutch  caricaturists  recurred  very  often  to  the  character  of  the 

9 


\ 2/itvaart  CuluL  \ 
I op  vcor-raad. 

Schryf’TTiaar  in  / 
Op  tyd 

rystTi  / 

Zoos  dctaZcTi,  / 

Loose,  Ooudleia^n 
derjie  UrjaelTi, 

Artier 

'hi'anspaT't 

Surplus 

Sulscriptie 

Tremie 

Fremic  ^cei^tn. 

Hulhdde  urtereft 
of  del 
of 


130 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


share  business.  In  several  of  their  worhs  we  see  a puffy  wind-god  blowing  up 
pockets  to  a great  size,  inflating  share-bags,  and  wafting  swiftly  along  vehicles 
with  spacious  sails.  The  bellows  play  a conspicuous  and  not  always  decorous 
part.  Jean  Law  is  exhibited  as  a ‘‘  wind  monopolist.”  In  one  picture  he  ap- 
pears assisting  Atlas  and  others  to  bear  up  great  globes  of  wind.  Kites  are 
flying  and  windmills  revolving  in  several  pictures.  Pigeons  fly  away  with 
shares  in  their  bills.  The  hunchback  who  served  as  a walking  desk  is  repeated 
many  times.  The  Tower  of  Babel,  the  mad-house,  the  hospital,  the  whirligig, 
a garden  maze,  the  lottery  wheel,  the  drum,  the  magic  lantern,  the  soap-bubble, 
the  bladder,  dice,  the  swing — whatever  typifies  pretense,  uncertainty,  or  con- 
fusion was  brought  into  the  service.  One  Dutch  broadsheet  (sixteen  inches 
by  twenty),  now  before  me,  contains  fifty-four  finely  executed  designs,  each  of 
which  burlesques  a scene  in  Law’s  career,  or  a device  of  his  finance,  the  whole 
making  a pack  of  wind  cards  for  playing  a game  of  wind.” 

Most  of  the  Dutch  pictures  were  “adapted”  into  English,  and  the  adapters 
added  verses  which,  in  some  instances,  were  better  than  the  caricatures.  A 
few  of  the  shorter  specimens  may  be  worth  the  space  they  occupy,  and  give 
the  reader  a feeling  of  the  situation  not  otherwise  attainable.  Of  the  pictures 
scarcely  one  would  either  bear  or  reward  reduction,  so  large  are  they,  so 
crowded  with  objects,  and  their  style  uninterestingly  obsolete  or  boorishly  in- 
decent. 

On  Puckle’s  Machine  Gun : 

“A  rare  invention  to  destroy  the  crowd 
Of  fools  at  home  instead  of  foes  abroad. 

Tear  not,  my  friends,  this  terrible  machine — 

They’re  only  wounded  that  have  shares  therein.” 

On  the  Saltpetre  Company  (two  and  sixpence  a share) ; 

“ Buy  petre  stock,  let  me  be  your  adviser; 

’Twill  make  you,  though  not  richer,  much  the  wiser.” 

On  the  German  Timber  Company : 

“You  that  are  rich  and  hasty  to  be  poor. 

Buy  timber  export  from  the  German  shore ; 

For  gallowses  built  up  of  foreign  wood. 

If  rightly  used,  will  do  Change  Alley  good.” 

On  the  Pennsylvania  Company: 

“Come  all  ye  saints  that  would  for  little  buy 
Great  tracts  of  land,  and  care  not  where  they  lie ; 

Deal  with  your  Quaking  Friends  ; they’re  men  of  light; 

Their  spirit  hates  deceit  and  scorns  to  bite.” 

On  the  Ship-building  Company: 

“To  raise  fresh  barks  must  surely  be  amusing, 

When  hundreds  rot  in  docks  for  want  of  using.” 


PRECEDING  HOGARTH. 


131 


On  Settling  the  Bahamas : 

“ Rare,  fruitful  isles,  where  not  an  ass  can  find 
A verdant  tuft  or  thistle  to  his  mind. 

How,  then,  must  those  poor  silly  asses  fare 
That  leave  their  native  land  to  settle  there  ?” 

On  a South  Sea  Speculator  imploring  Alms  through  his  Prison  Bars : 

“Behold  a poor  dejected  wretch, 

Who  kept  a S Sea  coach  of  late. 

But  now  is  glad  to  humbly  catch 
A penny  at  the  prison  grate. 

“What  ruined  numbers  daily  mourn 

Their  groundless  hopes  and  follies  past. 

Yet  see  not  how  the  tables  turn, 

Or  where  their  money  flies  at  last! 

“ Fools  lost  when  the  directors  won. 

But  now  the  poor  directors  lose ; 

And  where  the  S Sea  stock  will  run, 

Old  Nick,  the  first  projector,  knows.” 

On  a Picture  of  Change  Alley : 

“Five  hundred  millions,  notes  and  bonds. 

Our  stocks  are  worth  in  value ; 

' But  neither  lie  in  goods,  or  lands. 

Or  money,  let  me  tell  ye. 

Yet  though  our  foreign  trade  is  lost, 

Of  mighty  wealth  we  vapor, 

When  all  the  riches  that  we  boast 
Consist  in  scraps  of  paper.” 

On  a “ Permit 

“You  that  have  money  and  have  lost  your  wits. 

If  you’d  be  poor,  buy  National  Permits  ; 

Their  stock’s  in  fish,  the  fish  are  still  in  water. 

And  for  your  coin  you  may  go  fish  hereafter.” 

On  a Roomful  of  Ladies  buying  Stocks  of  a Jew  and  a Gentile: 

“With  Jews  and  Gentiles,  undismayed. 

Young  tender  virgins  mix  ; 

Of  whiskers  nor  of  beards  afraid. 

Nor  all  their  cozening  tricks. 

“Bright  jewels,  polished  once  to  deck 
The  fair  one’s  rising  breast. 

Or  sparkle  round  her  ivory  neck. 

Lie  pawned  in  iron  chest. 

“The  gentle  passions  of  the  mind 
How  avarice  controls! 

E’en  love  does  now  no  longer  find 
A place  in  female  souls.” 


132 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


On  a Picture  of  a Man  laughing  at  an  Ass  browsing : 

“A  wise  man  laughed  to  see  an  ass 
Eat  thistles  and  neglect  good  grass. 

But  had  the  sage  beheld  the  folly 
Of  late  transacted  in  Change  Alley, 

He  might  have  seen  worse  asses  there 
Give  solid  gold  for  empty  air, 

And  sell  estates  in  hopes  to  double 
Their  fortunes  by  some  worthless  bubble, 
Till  of  a sudden  all  was  lost 
That  had  so  many  millions  cost. 

Yet  ruined  fools  are  highly  pleased 
To  see  the  knaves  that  bit  ’em  squeezed, 
Forgetting  where  the  money  flies 
That  cost  so  many  tears  and  sighs.” 

On  the  Silk  Stocking  Company : 

‘ ‘ Deal  not  in  stocking  shares,  because,  I doubt. 
Those  that  buy  most  will  ere  long  go  without.” 


HOGARTH  AND  HIS  TIME. 


133 


CHAPTER  XII. 

HOGARTH  AND  HIS  TIME. 

These  Dutch-EngUsh  pictures  William  Hogarth,  we  may  be  sure,  often  in- 
spected as  they  successively  courted  public  notice  in  the  shops  of  London, 
as  we  see  in  his  early  works  a character  evidently  derived  from  them.  Dur- 
ing the  bubble  period  of  1V20,  he  was  an  ambitious  young  engraver  and  sign- 
painter  (at  least  willing  to  paint  signs  if  a job  offered),*  much  given  to  pencil- 
ing likenesses  and  strange  attitudes  upon  his  thumb-nail,  to  be  transferred,  on 
reaching  home,  to  paper,  and  stored  away  for  future  use.  He  was  one  of  those 
quick  draughtsmen  who  will  sketch  you  upon  the  spot  a rough  caricature  of 
any  odd  person,  group,  or  event  that  may  have  excited  the  mirth  of  the  com- 
pany ; a young  fellow  somewhat  undersized,  with  an  alert,  vigorous  frame,  a 
bright,  speaking  eye,  a too  quick  tongue  and  temper,  self-confident,  but  honest, 
sturdy,  and  downright  in  all  his  words  and  ways.  ‘‘But  I was  a good  pay- 
master even  he  once  said,  with  just  pride,  after  speaking  of  the  days 

when  he  sometimes  walked  London  streets  without  a shilling  in  his  pocket. 

Hogherd  was  the  original  name  of  the  family,  which  was  first  humanized 
into  Hogert  and  Hogart,  and  then  softened  into  its  present  form.  In  West- 
moreland, where  Hogarth’s  grandfather  cultivated  a farm — small,  but  his  own 
— the  first  syllable  of  the  name  was  pronounced  like  that  of  the  domestic  ani- 
mals which  his  remote  ancestors  may  have  herded.  There  was  a vein  of  tal- 
ent in  the  family,  an  uncle  of  Hogarth’s  having  been  the  song-writer  and  satir- 
ist of  his  village,  and  his  own  father  emerging  from  remote  and  most  rustic 
Westmoreland  to  settle  in  London  as  a poor  school-master  and  laborious,  ill- 
requited  compiler  of  school-books  and  proof-reader.  A Latin  dictionary  of 
his  making  existed  in  manuscript  after  the  death  of  the  artist,  and  a Latin  let- 
ter written  by  him  is  one  of  the  curiosities  in  the  British  Museum.  But  he 
remained  always  a poor  man,  and  could  apprentice  his  boy  only  to  an  engraver 
of  the  lowest  grade  known  to  the  art.  But  this  sufficed  for  a lad  who  could 
scarcely  touch  paper  with  a pencil  without  betraying  his  gift,  who  drew  capi- 
tal burlesques  upon  his  nail  when  he  was  fifteen,  and  entertained  Addison’s 
coffee-house  with  a caricature  of  its  landlord  when  he  was  twenty-two. 

The  earliest  work  by  this  greatest  English  artist  of  his  century,  which  has 


* “Catalogue  of  Prints  and  Drawings  in  the  British  Museum,”  Division  I.,  vol.  ii.,  p.  566. 


134 


CAEICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


been  preserved  in  the  British  Museum  (1'720),  shows  the  bent  of  his  genius  ns 
plainly  as  the  first  sketch  by  Boz  betrays  the  quality  of  Dickens.  It  is  called 
“ Design  for  a Shop-bill,”  and  was  probably  Hogarth’s  own  shop-bill,  his  adver- 
tisement to  the  public  that  he  was  able  and  willing  to  paint  signs.  In  those 
days,  the  school-master  not  having  yet  gone  abroad,”  signs  were  usually  pic- 
torial, and  sometimes  consisted  of  the  popular  representation  of  the  saint  hav- 


The  Sleeping  Congregation.  (Hogarth.) 


ing  special  charge  of  the  business  to  be  recommended.  In  Hogarth’s  shop-bill 
we  see  a tall  man  holding  up  a newly  painted  sign  of  St.  Luke  with  his  ox  and 
book,  at  which  a group  of  persons  are  looking,  while  Hogarth  himself  appears 
to  be  showing  the  sign  to  them  as  possible  customers.  Along  the  bottom  of 
the  sign  is  engraved  W.  Hogarth,  Painter.  In  the  background  is  seen  an 
artist  painting  at  an  easel  and  a boy  grinding  colors.  He  could  not  even  in 


HOGARTH  AND  HIS  TIME. 


135 


this  first  homely  essay  avoid  giving  his  work  something  of  a narrative  charac- 
ter. He  must  exhibit  a story  with  humorous  details.  So  in  his  caricature  of 
Daniel  Button,  drawn  to  ridicule  the  Tory  frequenters  of  Button’s  coffee-house, 
lie  relates  an  incident  as  well  as  burlesques  individuals.  There  stands  Master 
Button  in  his  professional  apron,  with  powdered  wig  and  frilled  shirt;  and  op- 
posite to  him  a tall,  seedy,  stooping  scholar  or  poet  is  storming  at  the  landlord 
with  clinched  fists,  because  he  will  not  let  him  have  a cup  of  coffee  without  the 
money.  There  is  also  the  truly  Hogarthian  incident  of  a dog  smelling  suspi- 
ciously the  poet’s  coat  tail.  Standing  about  the  room  are  persons  whom  tra- 
dition reports  to  have  been  intended  as  portraits  of  Pope,  Steele,  Addison, 
Arbuthnot,  and  others  of  Button’s  famous  customers.  This  drawing,  executed 
with  a brush,  is  also  preserved  in  the  British  Museum.  Daniel  Button,  as  Dr. 
Johnson  reports,  had  once  been  a servant  in  the  family  of  the  Countess  of  War- 
wick, and  was  placed  in  the  coffee-house  by  Addison.  A writer  in  the  Spec- 
tator alludes  to  this  haunt  of  the  Tories : ‘‘  I was  a Tory  at  Button’s  and  a 
Wliig  at  Child’s.” 

The  South  Sea  delusion  drew  from  Hogarth  his  first  engraved  caricature. 
Among  the  Dutch  engravings  of  1720,  called  forth  by  the  schemes  of  John 
Law,  there  was  one  in  which  the  victims  were  represented  in  a merry-go- 
round,  riding  in  revolving  cars  or  upon  wooden  horses,  the  whole  kept  in 
motion  by  a horse  ridden  by  the  devil.  The  picture  presents  also  the  usual 
multitude  of  confusing  details,  such  as  the  Dutch  mad -house  in  the  distance, 
with  a long  train  of  vehicles  going  toward  it.  In  availing  himself  of  this  de- 
vice the  young  Londoner  showed  much  of  that  skill  in  the  arrangement  of 
groups,  and  that  fertility  in  the  inventioii  of  details,  which  marked  his  later 
works.  His  whirligig  revolves  higher  in  the  air  than  in  the  Dutch  picture, 
enabling  him  to  show  his  figures  clear  of  the  crowd  below,  and  instead  of  the 
devil  on  horseback  giving  the  motion,  he  assigns  that  work  more  justly  to  the 
directors  of  the  South  Sea  Company.  Thus  he  has  room  and  opportunity  to 
impart  a distinct  character  to  most  of  his  figures.  We  see  perched  aloft  on 
the  wooden  horses  about  to  be  whirled  around,  a nobleman  with  his  broad  rib- 
bon, a shoe -black,  an  old  woman,  a wigged  clergyman,  and  a Avoman  of  the 
town.  With  his  usual  uncompromising  humor,  Hogarth  places  these  last  two 
characters  next  to  one  another,  and  Avhile  the  clergyman  ogles  the  woman,  she 
chucks  him  under  the  chin.  There  is  a world  of  accessories : a devil  exhaling 
fire,  standing  behind  a counter  and  cutting  pieces  of  flesh  from  the  body  of 
Fortune  and  casting  them  to  a hustling  crowd  of  Catholic,  Puritan,  and  Jew; 
Self-Interest  breaking  Honesty  upon  a wheel;  a crowd  of  women  rushing 
])ell-mell  into  an  edifice  gabled  with  horns,  and  bearing  the  words,  ‘‘  Raffling 
for  Husbands  with  Lottery  Fortunes  in  here;”  Honor  in  the  pillory  flogged 
by  Villainy ; an  ape  wearing  a sword  and  cap.  The  scene  chosen  by  the  art- 
ist for  these  remarkable  events  is  the  open  space  in  which  tlie  monument 
stands,  then  fresh  and  new,  which  commemorates  the  Great  Fire;  but  he  slyly 


136 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


changes  the  inscription  thus : “ This  Monument  was  erected  in  Memory  of  the 
Destruction  of  this  City  by  the  South  Sea  in  1'720.” 

Hogarth,  engraver  and  sign-painter  though  he  may  have  been,  was  all  him- 
self in  this  amusing  and  effective  piece.  If  the  Dutch  picture  and  Hogarth’s 
could  be  placed  here  side  by  side,  the  reader  would  have  before  him  an  inter- 
esting example  of  the  honest  plagiarism  of  genius,  which  does  not  borrow  gold 
and  merely  alter  the  stamp,  but  converts  a piece  of  crude  ore  into  a Toledo 
blade.  Unfortunately,  both  pictures  are  too  large  and  crowded  to  admit  of 
effective  reduction. 

In  this,  his  first  published  work,  the  audacious  artist  availed  himself  of  an 
expedient  which  heightened  the  effect  of  most  of  his  later  pictures.  He  intro- 
duced portraits  of  living  persons.  Conspicuous  in  the  foreground  of  the  South 
Sea  caricature,  among  other  personages  now  unknown,  is  the  diminutive  figure 
of  Alexander  Pope,  who  was  one  of  the  few  lucky  speculators  of  the  year  1720. 
At  least,  he  withdrew  in  time  to  save  half  the  sum  which  he  once  thought  he 
had  made.  The  gloating  rake  in  the  first  picture  of  the  Harlot’s  Progress  ” 
is  that  typical  reprobate  of  eighteenth-century  romances,  Colonel  Francis  Char- 
teris,  upon  whom  Arbuthnot  wrote  the  celebrated  epitaph,  which,  it  is  to  be 
hoped,  is  itself  a caricature  : 

“ Here  continueth  to  rot 
the  body  of  Francis  Chartkris, 
who,  with  an  inflexible  constancy  and 

INIMITABLE  UNIFORMITY  of  life, 

PERSISTED, 

in  spite  of  age  and  infirmities, 
in  the  practice  of  every  human  vice, 
excepting  prodigality  and  hypocrisy. 

His  insatiable  avarice  exempted  him  from  the  first; 
his  matchless  impudence  from  the  second. 


Oil,  indignant  reader ! 
think  not  his  life  useless  to  mankind  ; 

Providence  connived  at  his  execrable  designs 
to  give  to  after-ages  a conspicuous 
proof  and  example 

of  how  small  estimation  is  exorbitant  wealth 
in  the  sight  of  God,  by  His  bestowing  it  on 
the  most  unworthy  of  all  mortals.” 

Hogarth  was  as  much  a humorist  in  his  life  as  he  was  in  his  works.  The 
invitation  to  Mr.  King  to  eta  beta  py^  given  on  the  next  page,  was  one  of  many 
similar  sportive  efforts  of  his  pencil.  He  once  boasted  that  he  could  draw  a 
sergeant  carrying  his  pike,  entering  an  ale-house,  followed  by  his  dog,  all  in 
three  strokes.  He  produced  the  following,  also  given  on  next  page : 

He  explained  the  drawing  thus:  A is  the  perspective  line  of  the  door;  B, 
the  end  of  the  sergeant’s  pike,  who  has  gone  in ; C,  the  end  of  the  dog’s  tail. 


HOGARTH  AND  HIS  TIME. 


137 


B 


Hogarth’s  Invitation  Card. 


Nor  was  he  too  nice  in  his  choice 
of  subjects  for  way -side  treatment. 

One  of  his  fellow-apprentices  used  to 
relate  an  anecdote  of  the  time  when 
they  were  accustomed  to 
make  the  usual  Sunday  ex- 
cursion into  the  country, 

Hogarth  being  fifteen  years 
of  age.  In  a tap-room  row 
a man  received  a severe  cut 
upon  the  forehead  with  a 

quart  beer-pot,  which  brought  blood,  and  caused  him  to  ‘^distort  his 
features  into  a most  hideous  grin.”  Hogarth  produced  his  pencil 
and  instantly  drew  a caricature  of  the  scene,  including  a most  ludi- 
crous and  striking  likeness  of  the  wounded  man.  There  was  of  ne- 
cessity  a good  deal  of  tap-room  in  all  humorous  art  and  literature  of 
that  century,  and  he  was  perfectly  at  home  in  scenes  of  a beery  cast. 

The  “ Five  Days’  Peregrination  ” of  Hogarth  and  his  friends,  of  whicli 
Thackeray  discoursed  to  us  so  agreeably  in  one  of  his  lectures,  occurred  when 
the  artist  was  thirty-four  years  of  age.  But  it  shows  us  the  same  jovial  Lon- 
doner, whose  manners  and  pleasures,  as  Mr.  Thackeray  remarked,  though  hon- 
est and  innocent,  were  not  very  refined.”  Five  friends  set  out  on  foot  early 
in  the  morning  from  their  tavern  haunt  in  Covent  Garden,  gayly  singing  the 
old  song, ‘‘Why  should  we  quarrel  for  riches?”  Billingsgate  was  their  first 
halting-place,  where,  as  the  appointed  historian  of  the  jaunt  records,  “Hogarth 
made  the  caricature  of  a porter,  who  called  himself  the  Duke  of  Puddle  Dock,” 
which  “ drawing  was  by  his  grace  pasted  on  the  cellar  door.”  At  Rochester, 
“ Hogarth  and  Scott  stopped  and  played  at  hop-scotch  in  the  colonnade  under 
the  Town-hall.”  The  Nag’s  Head  at  the  village  of  Stock  sheltered  them  one 
night,  when,  after  supper,  “we  adjourned  to  the  door,  drank  punch,  stood  and 
sat  for  our  pictures  drawn  by  Hogarth.”  In  another  village  the  merry  blades 
“got  a wooden  chair,  and  placed  Hogarth  in  it  in  the  street,  where  he  made 
the  drawing,  and  gathered  a great  many  men,  women,  and  children  about  him 
to  see  his  performance.”  The  same  evening,  over  their  flip,  they  were  enter- 
taining the  tap-room  with  their  best  songs,  wdien  some  Harwich  lobster-men 
came  in  and  sung  several  sea- songs  so  agreeably  that  the  Londoners  were 
“quite  put  out  of  countenance.”  “Our  St.  J'ohn^''  records  the  scribe  of  the 
adventure,  “ would  not  come  in  competition,  nor  could  PishoJcen  save  ns  from 
disgrace.”  Here,  too,  is  a Hogarthian  incident:  “Hogarth  called  me  up  and 
told  me  the  good-woman  insisted  on  being  paid  for  her  bed,  or  having  Scott 
before  the  mayor,  tvhich  last  we  did  all  in  our  power  to  promote^'’  And  so 
they  merrily  tramped  the  country  round,  singing,  drawing,  copying  comic 
epitaphs,  and  pelting  one  another  with  dirt,  returning  to  London  at  the  end 


138  CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 

of  the  five  days,  having  expended  just  six  guineas— five  shillings  a day  each 
man. 

His  sense  of  hnmov  appears  in  his  serious  writings.  One  illustration  which 
he  gives  in  his  “Analysis  of  Beauty,”  to  show  the  essential  and  exhaustless 
charm  of  the  waving  line,  is  in  the  highest  degree  comic:  “I  once  heard  an 
eminent  dancing-master  say  that  the  minuet  had  been  the  study  of  his  whole 
life,  and  that  he  had  been  indefatigable  in  the  pursuit  of  its  beauties,  yet  at 


Time  Smoking  a Piotuke. 

last  could  only  say,  with  Socrates,  he  hneio  nothing^  adding  that  I was  happy 
in  my  profession  as  a painter,  in  that  some  bounds  might  be  set  to  the  study 
of  it.” 

In  his  long  warfare  with  the  picture-dealers,  who  starved  living  art  in  En- 
gland by  the  manufacture  of  “ old  masters,”  he  employed  ridicule  and  carica- 
ture with  powerful  effect.  Plis  masterly  caricature  of  “Time  smoking  a Pict- 
ure” was  well  seconded  by  humorous  letters  to  the  press,  and  by  many  a pass- 


HOGARTH  AND  HIS  TIME. 


139 


ing  hit  in  bis  more  elaborate  writings.  He  maintained  that  a painting  is  never 
so  good  as  at  the  moment  it  leaves  the  artist’s  bands,  time  having  no  possible 
effect  upon  it  except  to  impair  its  beauty  and  diminish  its  trutli.  There  was 
penned  at  this  period  a burlesque  “Bill  of  Monsieur  Yarnish  to  Benjamin  Bis- 
ter,” which  is  certainly  Hogarthian,  if  it  is  not  Hogarth’s,  and  might  well  serve 
as  a companion  piece  to  the  engraving.  Among  the  items  are  these : 

/ £ s.  d. 

To  painting  and  canvas  for  a naked  Mary  Magdalen,  in  tlie  undoubted  style  of 


Paul  Veronese 2 2 0 

To  brimstone,  for  smoking  ditto 0 2 G 

Paid  Mrs.  W' for  a live  model  to  sit  for  Diana  bathing,  by  Tintoretto 0 IG  0 

Paid  for  the  hire  of  a layman,  to  copy  the  robes  of  a Cardinal,  for  a Yandyck...  0 5 0 

Paid  the  female  figure  for  sitting  thirty  minutes  in  a wet  slieet,  that  I might 

give  the  dry  manner  of  that  master 0 10  G 

The  Tribute- money  Rendered,  with  all  the  exactness  of  Qiiintin  Metsius,  the 

famed  blacksmith  of  Antwerp 2 12  G 

The  Martyrdom  of  St.  Winifred,  with  a view  of  Holywell  Bath,  by  old  Prank.  .Ill  G 
To  a large  allegorical  altarpiece,  consisting  of  men  and  angels,  horses  and  river 

gods  ; ’tis  thought  most  happily  hit  off  for  a Rubens 5 5 0 

Paid  for  admission  into  the  House  of  Peers,  to  take  a sketch  of  a great  charac- 
ter, for  a picture  of  Moses  breaking  the  Tables  of  the  Law,  in  the  darkest 
manner  of  Rembrandt,  not  yet  finished 0 2 G 


The  idea  of  a wet  sheet  imparting  the  effect  of  dryness  was  taken  from  a 
treatise  on  painting,  which  stated  that  “ some  of  the  ancient  masters  acquired 
a dry  manner  of  painting  from  studying  after  wet  drapery.” 

This  robust  and  downright  Briton,  strong  in  the  consciousness  of  original 
and  native  genius,  did  not  object  merely  to  the  manufacture  of  old  masters, 
but  also  to  the  excessive  value  placed  upon  the  genuine  productions  of  the 
great  men  of  old.  He  could  not  feel  it  to  be  just  or  favorable  to  the  progress 
of  art  that  works  representing  a state  of  feeling  long  ago  outgrown  in  England 
should  take  precedence  of  paintings  instinct  with  the  life  of  the  present  hour. 
In  other  words,  he  did  not  enjoy  seeing  one  of  his  own  paintings  sell  at  auc- 
tion for  fourteen  guineas,  and  an  Old  Master  bring  a thousand.  He  grew 
warm  when  he  denounced  “the  picture  - jobbers  from  abroad,”  who  import- 
ed continually  “ship-loads  of  dead  Christs,  Holy  Families,  Madonnas,  and  oth- 
er dismal,  dark  subjects,  neither  entertaining  nor  ornamental,  on  which  they 
scrawl  the  terrible  cramp  names  of  some  Italian  masters,  and  fix  upon  us  En- 
glishmen the  name  of  universal  dupes.”  He  imagines  a scene  between  one  of 
those  old-master  mongers  and  his  customer.  The  victim  says : 

“^Mr.  Bubbleman,  that  grand  Yenus,  as  you  are  pleased  to  call  it,  has  not 
beauty  enough  for  the  character  of  an  English  cook-maid.’  Upon  which  the 
quack  answers,  with  a confident  air:  ‘Sir,  I find  that  you  are  no  connoisseur ; 
the  picture,  I assure  you,  is  in  Alesso  Baldminetto’s  second  and  best  manner, 
boldly  painted,  and  truly  sublime:  the  contour  gracious;  the  air  of  the  head 
in  high  Greek  taste  ; and  a most  divine  idea  it  is.’  Then  spitting  in  an  ob- 


140 


CAKICATUKE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


scare  place,  and  rubbing  it  with  a dirty  handkerchief,  takes  a skip  to  t’other 
end  of  the  room,  and  screams  out  in  raptures,  ‘ There’s  an  amazing  touch  ! A 
man  should  have  this  picture  a twelvemonth  in  his  collection  before  he  can 
discover  half  its  beauties  !’  The  gentleman  (though  naturally  a judge  of  what 
is  beautiful,  yet  ashamed  to  be  out  of  the  fashion  by  judging  for  himself) 


/lo 


n/r 


-^XLyf^ 


ici^r^  U/a  C(/rri 


^cry-  trrKXy  fV^ 


O-^ 


/^//un^AA 

'KL yyU^-r‘cJ:'  <cy^ • 

yZiy'y^  S^t/S/'c  a 

/V  (rA^^Oy. 

/lyi^tOy  Ay'  th^y 

cj  o^Aim  Ao  riA}Avx)y  ,iAAu^rv  ij  AA'ij  uJxry/L' 

^J-^fCoyA^  Ar  e^yyy  A^y . 

Aij  Mjoy"  my/^  Aivi  ffxlA^ 

Dedioation  of  a Proposed  History  of  the  Arts.  (From  Hogarth’s  Manuscript.*) 

Muth  this  cant  is  struck  dumb,  gives  a vast  sum  for  the  picture,  very  modestly 
confesses  he  is  indeed  quite  ignorant  of  painting,  and  bestows  a frame  wortli 
fifty  pounds  on  a frightful  thing,  which,  without  the  hard  name,  is  not  worth 
so  many  farthings.” 

He  gives  picture-buyers  a piece  of  advice  which  many  of  them  have  since 


* “ Hogarth’s  Works,”  frontispiece  to  a'oI.  iii.,  by  Ireland  and  Nichols. 


HOGARTH  AND  HIS  TIME. 


141 


taken,  to  the  sore  distress  of  tlieir  guests : Use  your  own  eyes,  and  buy  the 
pictures  which  they  dwell  upon  with  delight. 

In  the  heat  of  controversy,  Hogarth,  as  usual,  went  too  far;  but  he  stood 
manfully  by  his  order,  and  defended  resolutely  their  rights  and  his  own.  Art- 
ists owe  him  undying  gratitude  for  two  great  services : he  showed  them  a way 
to  independence  by  setting  up  in  business  on  his  own  account,  becoming  his 
own  engraver  and  publisher,  and  retaining  always  the  ownership  of  his  own 
plates,  which,  indeed,  constituted  his  estate,  and  supported  creditably  his  fam- 
ily as  long  as  any  of  them  lived.  He  served  all  artists,  too,  by  defending  him- 
self against  the  pirates  who  flooded  the  market  with  meanly  executed  copies 
of  his  own  engravings.  It  was  William  Hogarth  who  obtained  from  Parlia- 
ment the  first  act  which  secured  to  artists  the  sole  right  to  multiply  and  sell 
copies  of  their  works ; and  this  right  is  the  very  corner-stone  of  a great  na- 
tional painter’s  independence.  That  act  made  genuine  art  a possible  profes- 
sion in  England. 

Such  was  Hogarth,  the  original  artist  of  his  country,  an  honest,  valiant  citi- 
zen, who  stood  his  ground,  paid  his  way,  cheered  and  admonished  his  genera- 
tion. He  had  the  faults  which  belong  to  a positive  character,  trod  on  many 
toes,  was  often  misunderstood,  and  had  his  ample  shai’e  of  trouble  and  conten- 
tion. All  that  is  now  forgotten ; and  he  was  never  so  much  valued,  so  fre- 
quently reproduced,  so  generally  possessed,  or  so  carefully  studied  as  at  the 
present  time. 

The  generation  that  forms  great  satirists  shines  in  the  history  of  literature, 
but  not  in  that  of  morals;  for  to  supply  with  objects  of  satire  such  masters 
of  the  satiric  arts  as  Hogarth,  Swift,  Pope,  Gay,  Steele,  Arbuthnot,  and  Foote, 
there  must  be  deep  corruption  in  the  State  and  radical  folly  in  conspicuous 
persons.  The  process  which  has  since  been  named  secularization  ” had  then 
fairly  set  in.  The  brilliant  men  of  the  time* had  learned  to  deride  the  faith 
which  had  been  a restraining  force  upon  the  propensities  of  man  for  fifteen 
centuries,  but  were  very  far  from  having  learned  to  be  continent,  temperate, 
and  just  without  its  aid.  ‘‘Four  treatises  against  the  miracles”  Voltaire 
boasted  of  having  seen  during  his  residence  in  England  in  1727  and  1728;  but 
these  treatises  did  not  moderate  the  warmth  of  human  passions,  nor  change 
any  other  element  in  the  difficult  problem  of  existence.  Walpole  bribed.  Swift 
maligned,  Bolingbroke  intrigued,  Charteris  seduced,  and  Marlborough  pecu- 
lated just  as  if  the  New  Light  had  not  dawned  and  the  miracles  had  remained 
intact.  Do  we  not,  even  in  our  own  time,  see  inquiring  youth,  bred  in  strait- 
laced homes,  assuming  that  since  there  are  now  two  opinions  as  to  the  origin 
of  things,  it  is  no  longer  necessary  to  comply  with  the  moral  laws?  The 
splendid  personages  of  that  period  seem  to  have  been  in  a moral  condition 
similar  to  that  of  such  a youth.  It  was  the  fashion  to  be  dissolute ; it  was 
“provincial”  to  obey  those  laws  of  our  being  from  compliance  with  which  all 
human  welfare  and  all  honest  joy  liave  come. 


142 


CAEICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


Politics  were  still  most  rudimentary. 


The  English  people  were  fully  re- 
solved on  keeping  out  the  dull  and 
deadly  Stuarts ; but  the  price  they 
had  to  pay  for  this  was  to  submit 
to  the  rule  of  the  dull  and  difficult 


Georges,  whose  bodies  were 


in 


Sir  Robert  Walpole  paring  the  Nails  of  the  British 
Lion. 


England  and  their  hearts  in  Han- 
over. Between  the  king  and  the 
people  stood  Sir  Robert  Walpole 
— as  good  a man  as  could  have 
held  the  place — who  went  direct- 
ly to  the  point  with  members  and 
wu-iters,  ascertained  their  price,  and 
paid  it.  According  to  one  of 
Pope’s  bitter  notes  on  the  “Dun- 
ciad,”  where  he  quotes  a Parlia- 
mentary report,  this  minister  in  ten  years  paid  to  writers  and  publishei’s  of 
newspapers  “fifty  thousand  pounds  eighteen  shillings!”  TIow  much  he  paid 
to  members  of  Parliament  was  a secret  known  only  to  himself  and  the  king. 
The  venality  of  the  press  was  frequently  burlesqued,  as  well  as  the  fulsome 
pomp  of  its  purchased  eulogies.  A very  good  specimen  is  that  which  ap- 
peared in  1735,  during  a ministerial  crisis,  when  the  opposition  had  high  hopes 
of  ousting  the  tenacious  Walpoles.  An  “Advertisement”  was  published,  in 
which  was  offered  for  sale  a “neat  and  curious  collection  of  well-chosen  sim- 
iles, allusions,  metaphors,  and  allegories  from  the  best  plays  and  romances, 
modern  and  ancient,  proper  to  adorn  a panegyric  on  the  glorious  patriots  de- 
signed to  succeed  the  present  ministry.”  The  author  gave  notice  that  “all 
sublunary  metaphors  of  a new  minister,  being  a Rock,  a Pillar,  a Bulwark,  a 
Strong  Tower,  or  a Spire  Steeple,  will  be  allowed  very  cheap  ;”  but  celestial 
brought  from 


ones,  being 


world  at  a great 


the  other 

expense,  must  be  held  at  a 
liigher  rate.  The  author  an- 
nounced that  he  had  pre- 
pared a collection  of  State 
satires,  wdiich  would  serve, 
with  little  variation,  to  libel 
a judge,  a bishop,  or  a prime 
minister.  “ N.B. — The  same 
satirist  has  collections  of  rea- 

T 1 1 • • . Dutch  Neutrality,  1745. 

sons  ready  by  him  against 

the  ensuing  peace,  though  he  has  not  yet  read  the  preliminaries  or  seen  one 
article  of  the  pacification,” 


HOGARTH  AND  HIS  TIME. 


143 


There  was  also  a burlesque  ‘^Bill  of  Costs  for  a late  Tory  Election  in  the 
West,”  in  which  we  find  such  items  as  “bespeaking  and  collecting  a mob,” 
“ a set  of  No-Roundhead  roarers,”  “ a set  of  coffee-house  praters,”  “ Dissenter 
damners,”  “demolishing  two  houses,”  “committing  two  riots,”  “breaking  win- 
dows,” “ roarers  of  the  word  Chukch,”  “ several  gallons  of  Tory  punch  on 
church  tombstones.”  It  is  questionable,  however,  if  in  all  the  burlesques  of 
the  period  there  was  one  more  ridiculous  than  the  narrative  of  an  actual  oc- 
currence in  April,  1715,  when  the  footmen  of  members  of  the  House  of  Com- 
mons met  outside  of  the  Plouse,  according  to  established  custom,  to  elect  a 
Speaker.  The  Tory  footmen  cast  their  votes  for  “ Sir  Thomas  Morgan’s  serv- 
ant,” and  the  Whigs  for  “Mr.  Strickland’s  man.”  A dispute  arising,  a fight 
ensued  between  the  two  parties,  in  the  midst  of  which  the  House  broke  up, 
and  the  footmen  were  obliged  to  attend  their  masters.  The  next  day,  as  soon 
as  the  House  was  in  session,  the  fight  was  renewed,  and,  after  a desperate 
struggle,  the  victorious  Whigs  carried  their  man  three  times  in  triumph  round 
Westminster  Hall,  and  then  adjourned  to  a Whig  ale-house,  the  landlord  of 
which  gave  them  a dinner,  the  footmen  paying  only  for  their  drink. 

The  caricatures  of  the  Walpole  period  preserve  the  record  of  the  first  at- 
tempt to  lessen  by  law  the  in- 
temperate drinking  of  gin — 
the  most  pernicious  of  the 
spirituous  liquors.  ’A  law 
was  passed  imposing  upon 
this  article  a very  heavy  ex- 
cise, and  prohibiting  its  sale 
in  small  quantities.  But  in 
1736  England  had  not  reach- 
ed, by  a century  and  a half, 
the  development  of  civiliza- 
tion which  admits  of  the  ade- 
quate consideration  of  such  a 
measure ; nor  can  the  poor 
man’s  gin  ever  be  limited  by 
law  while  the  rich  man’s  wine 
flows  free.  This  gin  law  ap- 
pears to  have  been  killed  by 
ridicule.  Ballads  lamenting  the  near  decease  of  “Mother  Gin”  were  sung  in 
the  streets;  the  gin-shop  signs  were  hung  with  black,  and  there  were  mock 
ceremonies  of  “Madame  Geneva’s  Lying  in  State,”  “Mother  Gin’s  Wake,”  and 
“Madame  Gin’s  Funeral.”  Paragraphs  notified  the  public  that  the  funeral  of 
Madame  Gin  was  celebrated  with  great  merriment,  many  of  both  sexes  “get- 
ting soundly  drunk,”  and  a mob  following  her  remains  with  torches.  The 
night  before  the  measure  went  into  02")eration  was  one  of  universal  revel  among 


British  Idolatry  of  the  Opera-Singer  Mingotti,  1T56, 


Ra,  ra,  ra,  rot  ye, 

My  name  is  Mingotti, 

If  yon  worship  me  notti, 
You  shall  all  go  to  potti.” 


144 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


the  gin-driiikers,  and  every  one,  we  are  assured,  carried  off  as  much  of  the  pop- 
ular liquor,  for  future  consumption,  as  he  could  pay  for.  The  law  was  evaded 
by  the  expedients  long  afterward  employed  in  Maine,  when  first  a serious  at- 
tempt was  made  to  enforce  the  “ Maine  Law.”  Apothecaries  and  others  col- 
ored their  gin,  put  it  into  phials,  and  labeled  it  Colic  Water,”  “Make-shift,” 
“The  Ladies’  Delight,”  with  printed  “Directions  ” to  take  two  or  three  spoon- 
fuls three  or  four  times  a day,  “ or  as  often  as  the  fit  takes  you.”  Informers 
sprung  into  an  importance  never  before  known,  and  many  of  them  invented 
snares  to  decoy  men  into  violations  of  the  law.  So  odious  did  they  become 
that  if  one  of  them  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  mob,  he  was  lucky  to  escape 
with  only  a ducking  in  the  Thames  or  a horse-trough.  In  short,  the  attempt 
was  ill-considered  and  premature,  and  after  an  experiment  of  two  or  three 


The  Motion  (fok  the  Kemoval  op  Sir  Robert  Walpole). 


years  it  was  given  up,  having  contributed  something,  toward  the  growing  un- 
popularity of  the  ministry. 

The  downfall  of  Sir  Robert  Wnlpole,  after  holding  office  for  twenty  years, 
was  preceded  by  an  animated  fire  of  caricature,  in  which  the  adherents  of  Wal- 
pole held  their  own.  The  specimen  given  above,  entitled  “The  Motion,”  was 
reduced  from  one  of  the  most  famous  caricatures  of  the  reign  of  George  II., 
and  one  of  the  most  finely  wrought  of  the  century.*  Horace  Walpole,  son  of 
the  great  minister,  wu’ote  from  Florence  that  the  picture  had  “diverted  him  ex- 
tremely,” and  that  the  likenesses  were  “ admirable.”  To  us  the  picture  says 
nothing  until  it  is  explained;  but  every  London  apprentice  of  the  period  rec- 
ognized Whitehall  and  the  Treasury,  toward  which  the  Opposition  was  driving 
with  such  furious  haste,  and  could  distinguish  most  of  the  personages  exhib- 
ited. A few  days  before  this  caricature  appeared,  Sandys,  who  was  styled  the 
motion-maker,  from  the  frequency  of  his  attempts  to  array  the  House  of  Com- 


Thomas  Wright,  “Caricature  History  of  the  Georges,”  p.  128. 


HOGARTH  AND  HIS  TIME. 


145 


mons  against  the  Walpole  ministry,  moved  once  more  an  address  to  the  king, 
that  he  would  be  pleased  to  remove  Sir  Robert  Walpole  from  his  presence  and 
councils  forever.  The  debate  upon  this  motion  was  long  and  most  vehement, 
and  though  the  ministry  triumphed,  it  was  one  of  those  bloody  victories  which 
presage  overthrow.  On  the  same  day  a similar  motion  ” was  made  in  the 
House  of  Lords  by  Lord  Carteret,  where  ^n  equally  violent  discussion  was  fol- 
lowed by  a vote  sustaining  the  ministry.  The  exultation  of  the  Walpole  party 
inspired  this  famous  caricature,  in  which  we  see  the  Opposition  peers  trying  to 
reach  office  in  a lordly  coach  and  six,  and  the  Commons  trudging  toward  the 
same  goal  on  foot,  their  leader,  Pulteney,  wheeling  a load  of  Opposition  news- 
papers, and  leading  his  followers  by  the  nose.  Every  politician  of  note  on  the 
side  of  the  Opposition  is  in  the  picture : Lord  Chesterfield  is  the  postilion ; the 
Duke  of  Argyll  the  coachman;  Lord  Carteret  the  gentleman  inside  the  coach, 
who,  becoming  conscious  of  the  breakdown,  cries,  Let  me  get  out !”  Bubb 
Dodington  is  tlie  spaniel  between  the  coachman’s  legs;  the  footman  behind 
the  coach  is  Lord  Cobham,  and  the  outrider  Lord  Lyttelton.  On  the  side  of 
the  Commons  there  is  Sandys,  dropping  in  despair  his  favorite,  often-defeated 
“Place  Bill,”  and  exclaiming,  “I  thought  what  would  come  of  putting  him  on 
the  box?”  Much  of  the  humor  and  point  of  the  picture  is  lost  to  us,  because 
the  peculiar  relations  of  the  persons  portrayed  to  the  public,  to  their  party,  and 
to  one  another  can  not  now  be  perfectly  recalled. 

Edition  after  edition  of  “ The  Motion  ” appeared,  one  of  which  was  so  ar- 
ranged that  it  could  be  fitted  to  the  frame  of  a lady’s  fan,  a common  device 
at  the  time.  The  Opposition  retorted  with  a parody  of  the  picture,  whicl. 
they  styled  “The  Reason,”  in  which  Walpole  figures  as  the  coachman,  driving 
the  coach  of  state  to  destruction.  Another  parody  was  called  “The  Motive,” 
in  which  the  king  was  the  passenger  and  Walpole  the  driver.  Then  followed 
“A  Consequence  of  the  Motion,”  “Motion  upon  Motion,”  “The  Grounds,”  and 
others.  The  Walpole  party  surpassed  their  opponents  in  caricature;  but  cari- 
cature is  powerless  to  turn  back  a genuine  tide  of  public  feeling,  and  a year 
later  Sir  Robert  was  honorably  shelved  in  the  House  of  Lords. 

From  this  time  forward  the  history  of  Europe  is  recorded  or  burlesqued 
in  the  comic  pictures  of  the  shop- window;  not  merely  the  conspicuous  part 
played  in  it  by  ministers  and  kings,  but  the  foibles,  the  fashions,  the  passions, 
the  vices,  the  credulities,  the  whims,  of  each  generation.  The  British  rage  for 
the  Italian  opera,  the  enormous  sums  paid  to  the  singers,  the  bearish  manners 
of  Handel,  the  mania  for  gaming,  the  audacity  of  highwaymen,  and  the  impo- 
sitions upon  popular  credulity  no  more  escape  the  satirist’s  pencil  than  Brad- 
dock’s  defeat,  the  Queen  of  Hungary’s  loss  of  Silesia,  or  William  Pitt’s  timely, 
and  also  his  ill-timed,  fits  of  the  gout.  Ror  were  the  abuses  of  the  Church 
overlooked.  One  picture,  entitled  “The  Fat  Pluralist  and  his  Lean  Curates,” 
published  in  exhibited  a corpulent  dignitary  of  the  Church  in  a chariot 

drawn  by  six  meagre  and  wretched  curates.  The  portly  priest  carries  under 

10 


146 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


one  arm  a large  church,  and  a cathedral  under  the  other,  while  at  his  feet  are 
two  sucking  pigs,  a hen,  and  a goose,  which  he  has  taken  as  tithe  from  a farm- 
yard in  the  distance.  “ The  Church,”  says  the  pluralist,  “ was  made  for  me, 
not  I for  the  Church and  under  the  wheels  of  the  coach  is  a book  marked 
‘‘The  Thirty-nine  Articles.”  One  starving  curate  cries,  piteously,  “Lord,  be 
merciful  to  us  poor  curates!”  to  which  another  responds,  “And  send  us  more 
comfortable  livings !”  It  required  a century  of  satire  and  remonstrance  to  get 
that  one  monstrous  abuse  of  the  Church  Ring  reduced  to  proportions  ap- 
proaching decency.  Corruption  in  the  city  of  New  York  in  the  darkest  days 


Amtiquauies  Puzzled.  (Loadou,  1756.) 


of  Tweed  was  less  universal,  less  systematic,  less  remote  from  remedy,  than 
that  of  the  Government  of  Great  Britain  under  the  least  incapable  of  its  four 
Georges.  It  was  merely  more  decorous. 

A specimen  of  the  harmless,  good-humored  satire  aimed  at  the  zealous  an- 
tiquaries of  the  last  century  is  given  above.  This  picture  may  have  suggested 
to  Mr.  Dickens  the  familiar  scene  in  “Pickwick”  where  the  roving  members 
of  the  Pickwick  Club  discover  the  stone  commemorative  of  Bill  Stumps.  The 
mysterious  inscription  in  the  picture  is,  “Beneath  this  stone  reposeth  Claud 
Coster,  tripe-seller  of  Impington,  as  doth  his  consort  Jane.” 


ENGLISH  CAEICATURE  IN  THE  REVOLUTIONARY  PERIOD. 


147 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

ENGLISH  CARICATURE  IN  THE  REVOLUTIONARY  PERIOD. 

IT  is  part  of  the  office  of  caricature  to  assist  in  destroying  illusions  that  have 
served  their  turn  and  become  obstructive.  As  in  Luther’s  time  it  gave 
important  aid  to  the  reformers  in  breaking  the  spell  of  the  papacy,  so  now, 
when  kingship  broke  down  in  Europe,  the  satiric  pencil  had  much  to  do  with 
tearing  away  the  veil  of  fiction  which  had  so  long  concealed  the  impotence  of 
kings  for  nearly  every  thing  but  mischief. 

The  fatal  objection  to  the  hereditary  principle  in  the  government  of  nations 

MAU^JA  1R1RTTO TTO^.TID 


A CaPvICaturk  designed  ijY  Benjamin  Franklin.  (London,  1T74.) 

Explanation  by  Dr.  Franklin:  “The  Colonies  (that  is,  Britannia’s  limbs)  being  severed  from  her,  Britan- 
nia is  seen  lifting  her  eyes  and  mangled  stumps  to  heaven ; her  shield,  which  she  is  unable  to  wield,  lies 
useless  by  her  side ; her  lance  has  pierced  New  England ; the  laurel  branch  has  fallen  from  the  hand  of 
Pennsylvania;  the  English  oak  has  lost  its  head,  and  stands  a bare  trunk,  with  a few  withered  branches; 
briers  and  thorns  are  on  the  ground  beneath  it;  the  British  ships  have  brooms  at  their  topmast  heads,  de- 
noting their  being  on  sale;  and  Britannia  herself  is  seen  sliding  otf  the  world  (no  longer  able  to  hold  its 
balance),  her  fragments  overspread  with  the  label,  Date  obolum  Bellisario  ” (Give  a farthing  to  Belisarius). 

is  the  importance  which,  to  use  Mr.  Jefferson’s  words,  it  heaps  upon  idiots.” 
Idiot  is  a harsh  word  to  apply  to  a person  so  well  disposed  as  George  III., 
King  of  England,  to  whom  the  violence  of  the  Revolutionary  period  was  chief- 
ly due ; but  when  we  think  of  the  evil  and  suffering  from  which  Europe  could 


148 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


have  been  saved  if  he  had  known  a little  more  or  been  a little  less,  we  can  not 
be  surprised  that  contemporaries  should  have  summed  him  up  with  disrespect- 
ful brevity.  But  for  him,  so  far  as  short-sighted  mortals  can  discern,  the  pe- 
riod of  bloody  revolution  could  have  been  a period  of  peaceful  reform.  After 
exasperating  his  subjects  nearly  to  the  point  of  rebellion,  he  precipitated  the 
independence  of  the  American  colonies,  which,  in  turn,  brought  on  the  French 
Revolution,  and  that  issued  in  IsTapoleon  Bonaparte,  whose  sins  France  only 
finished  expiating  at  Sedan. 

It  is  true,  there  must  have  been  in  Great  Britain  myriads  upon  myriads  of 
such  heads  as  that  of  King  George  to  make  his  policy  possible.  But  suppose^ 
that,  instead  of  placing  himself  at  the  head  of  the  dull  minds  in  his  empire, 
he  had  given  the  prestige  of  the  crown  to  the  bright  and  independent  souls  ! 
Suppose  he  had  taken  as  kindly  to  Chatham,  Burke,  Fox,  Franklin,  Price, 
Priestley,  and  Barre  as  he  did  to  Bute,  Dr.  Johnson,  Addington,  and  Eldon  ! 

And  see  how  this  heir  to  the  first  throne  in  Christendom  was  educated. 
That  period  has  been  so  laid  bare  by  diaries  and  correspondence  that  we  can 
visit  the  orphan  boy  in  his  home  at  Carlton  House,  and  listen  to  his  mother, 
the  widowed  Princess  of  Wales,  as  she  describes  his  traits  and  laments  the 
defects  of  his  training.  Go  back  to  the  year  1752,  and  imagine  a drawing- 
room in  a royal  residence.  The  dinner  hour  then  had  only  got  as  far  toward 
“to-morrow”  as  three  in  the  afternoon,  and  therefore  by  early  candle-light  of 
an  October  evening  the  drawing-room  may  be  supposed  to  be  inhabited.  The 
Princess  of  Wales,  born  a princess  of  a petty  German  sovereignty,  still  a young 
mother,  is  dressed  in  mourning,  her  husband  being  but  a few  months  dead. 
Of  the  duties  belonging  to  royalty  she  had  no  ideas  except  those  which  had 
prevailed  from  time  immemorial  at  the  court  of  absolute  German  sovereigns. 
Her  chief  care  was  to  preserve  the  morals  of  her  children,  and  to  have  her 
eldest  son  a king  in  reality  as  well  as  in  name.  “ Be  king  ” {^ois  roi)  were 
favorite  words  with  her,  often  repeated  in  the  hearing  of  the  heir  to  the  throne. 
She  thought  it  infamy  in  a king  to  allow  himself  to  be  ruled  by  ministers. 
There  is  no  reason  to  doubt  that  she  was  an  honorable  lady  and  affectionate 
mother.  Horace  Walpole’s  insinuation  that  she  instilled  virtuous  principles 
into  the  mind  of  her  son  because  she  “ feared  a mistress,”  and  that  her  inti- 
macy with  Lord  Bute  was  a criminal  intrigue,  dishonors  Horace  Walpole  and 
human  nature,  but  not  the  mother  of  George  HI. 

She  has  company  this  evening  — Bubb  Dodington,  a gentleman  of  great 
wealth  and  agreeable  manners,  who  controlled  six  votes  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, and  passed  his  life  in  scheming  to  buy  a peerage  with  them,  in  which, 
a year  before  his  death,  he  succeeded,  but  left  no  heir  to  inherit  it.  He  was 
much  in  the  confidence  of  the  princess,  and  she  had  sent  for  him  to  “ spend  the 
day”  with  her.  Dinner  is  over,  the  two  ladies-in-waiting  are  present,  and  now 
the  “children”  enter  to  play  a few  games  of  cards  with  their  mother  before 
going  to  bed.  The  children  are  seven  in  number,  of  whom  the  eldest  was 


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149 


George,  Prince  of  Wales — a boy  of  fourteen,  of  fresh  complexion,  sturdy  and 
stout  in  form,  and  a countenance  open  and  agreeable,  and  wearing  an  expres- 
sion of  honesty.  Human  nature  rarely  assumes  a more  pleasing  form  than 
that  of  a healthy,  innocent  English  boy  of  fourteen.  He  was  such  a boy  as 
you  may  still  see  in  tlie  play-grounds  of  Eton,  only  he  was  heavier,  slower, 
and  ruddier  than  the  average,  and  much  more  shy  in  company.  He  loved  his 
horse,  and  was  exceedingly  fond  of  rural  sports ; but  when  lesson-time  came — 
but  let  his  mother  speak  on  that  point. 

The  old  game  of  “comet”  was  the  one  which  the  lad  usually  preferred. 
The  company  play  at  comet  for  small  stakes,  until  the  clock  strikes  nine,  when 
“the  royal  children”  go  to  bed.  Then  the  mother  leaves  her  ladies,  and  with- 
draws with  her  guest  to  the  other  end  of  the  room,  where  she  indulges  in  a 
long,  gossipy,  confidential  chat  upon  the  subject  nearest  her  heart — her  son,  the 
presumptive  heir  to  the  throne.  To  show  the  reader  how  she  used  to  talk  to 
confidants  on  such  occasions,  I will  glean  a few  sentences  from  her  conversa- 
tions : 

“I  like  that  the  prince  should  amuse  himself  now  and  then  at  small  play; 
but  princes  should  never  play  deep,  both  for  the  example,  and  because  it  does 
not  become  them  to  win  great  sums.  George’s  real  disposition,  do  you  ask? 
You  know  him  almost  as  well  as  I do.  He  is  very  honest,  but  I wish  he  was 
a little  more  forward  and  less  childish  at  his  age.  I hope  his  preceptors  will 
improve  him.  I really  do  not  know  what  they  are  teaching  him,  but,  to  speak 
freely,  I am  afraid  not  much.  They  are  in  the  country,  and  follow  their  diver- 
sions, and  not  much  else  that  I can  discover.” 

Dodington  remarked  upon  this  that,  for  his  part,  he  did  not  much  regard 
books;  what  he  most  wished  was  that  the  prince  should  begin  to  acquire 
knowledge  of  the  world,  and  be  informed  of  the  general  frame  and  nature  of 
the  British  Government  and  Constitution,  and,  without  going  into  minutiai, 
get  some  insight  into  the  manner  of  doing  public  business. 

“ I am  of  your  opinion,”  said  the  princess ; “ and  his  tutor.  Stone,  tells  me 
that  when  he  talks  with  him  on  those  subjects,  he  seems  to  give  proper  atten- 
tion, and  makes  pertinent  remarks.  I stick  to  the  learning  as  the  chief  point. 
You  know  how  backward  the  children  were,  and  I am  sure  you  do  not  think 
them  much  improved  since.  It  may  be  that  it  is  not  too  late  to  acquire  a com- 
petence. I am  highly  sensible  how  necessary  it  is  that  the  prince  should  keep 
company  with  men.  I know  that  women  can  not  inform  him ; but  if  his  edu- 
cation was  in  my  power  absolutely,  to  whom  could  I address  him?  What 
company  can  I wisli  him  to  keep  ? What  friendships  can  I desire  him  to  con- 
tract? Such  is  the  universal  profligacy,  such  is  the  character  and  conduct  of 
the  young  people  of  distinction,  that  I am  really  afraid  to  have  them  near  my 
children.  I shall  even  be  in  more  pain  for  my  daughters  than  I am  for  my 
sons,  for  the  behavior  of  the  women  is  indecent,  low,  and  much  against  their 
own  interest  by  making  themselves  so  very  cheap.” 


150 


CARICATURE  AND  COxMIC  ART. 


Three  years  passed.  The  prince  was  seventeen.  Still  the  anxious  mother 
deplored  the  neglect  of  his  education. 

‘‘His  book-learning,”  said  she  to  the  same  friend,  “I  am  no  judge  of, 
though  I suppose  it  is  small  or  useless ; but  I did  hope  he  might  have  been  in- 
structed in  the  general  understanding  of  things.  I once  desired  Mr.  Stone  to 
inform  the  prince  about  the  Constitution;  but  he  declined  it  to  avoid  giving 
jealousy  to  the  Bishop  of  Norwich  (official  educator).  I mentioned  it  again, 
but  he  still  declined  it  as  not  being  his  province.” 

“ Pray,  madam,”  asked  Dodington,  “ what  is  his  province  ?” 

“ I don’t  know,  unless  it  is  to  go  before  the  prince  up-stairs,  to  walk  with 
him  sometimes,  seldomer  to  ride  with  him,  and  now  and  then  to  dine  with 
him.  But  when  they  do  walk  together,  the  prince  generally  takes  that  time 
to  think  of  his  own  affairs  and  say  nothing.” 

The  youth  was,  indeed,  extremely  indolent  and  stupid.  At  school  he  would 
have  been  simply  called  a dunce,  for  at  eleven  he  could  not  read  English  with 
any  fluency,  and  he  could  never  have  been  induced  to  apply  his  mind  to  study 
except  by  violence.  He  never  had  the  slightest  notion  of  what  Chatham, 
Burke,  or  Fox  meant-when  they  spoke  of  the  Constitution.  If  Mr.  Stone  had 
not  been  in  dread  of  invading  the  Bishop  of  Norwich’s  province,  and  if  the 
bishop  had  not  been  a verbose  and  wearisome  formalist,  their  united  powers 
could  not  have  shown  this  young  man  the  unique  and  prodigious  happiness  of 
a constitutional  king  in  governing  through  responsible  ministers.  His  “ gov- 
ernor” during  the  last  few  years  of  his  minority  was  Lord  Waldegrave,  whose 
too  brief  memoirs  confirm  the  excellent  report  which  contemporaries  give  of 
his  mind  and  character.  Lord  Waldegrave  could  make  nothing  of  him. 
Speaking  of  the  prince  at  nineteen,  he  says  he  was  “ uncommonly  full  of  prince- 
ly prejudices,  contracted  in  the  nursery  and  improved  by  the  society  of  bed- 
chamber women  and  pages  of  the  back-stairs.”  He  found  the  heavy  youth  an 
insufferable  bore,  and  he  was  soon,  as  his  relation,  Horace  Walpole,  relates, 
“thoroughly  fatigued  with  the  insipidity  of  his  pupil.”  The  prince  derived 
from  his  education  only  two  ideas,  one  very  good  and  the  other  very  bad. 
The  first  was  that  he  must  be  a Good  Boy  and  not  keep  a mistress;  the  sec- 
ond was  that  he  must  be  a king  indeed. 

An  indolent  and  ignorant  monarch  who  will  not  govern  by  ministers  must 
govern  by  favorites.  He  has  no  other  alternative  but  abdication.  A favorite 
was  at  hand  in  the  person  of  a poor  Scotch  lord  who  had  married  one  of  the 
richest  heiresses  in  Europe,  tlie  daughter  of  Lady  Mary  Wortley  Montagu  and 
her  miserly  husband.  He  had  also,  if  we  may  believe  Lord  Waldegrave,  “a 
good  person,  fine  legs,  and  a theatrical  air  of  the  greatest  importance.”  He 
was  likewise  fond  of  medals,  engravings,  and  flowers;  he  pensioned  Dr.  John- 
son and  the  dramatist  Home;  he  really  enjoyed  some  products  of  art,  and  was 
far  from  being  either  the  execrable  or  the  ridiculous  personage  which  he  was 
esteemed  by  men  whom  he  kept  from  place.  “Bute,”  said  Prince  Frederick, 


ENGLISH  CARICATURE  IN  THE  REVOLUTIONARY  PERIOD. 


151 


father  of  George  III.,  ‘^yoii  would  make  an  excellent  embassador  in  a small, 
proud  little  court  where  there  is  nothing  to  do.”  He  would  have  arranged  the 
ceremonials,  superintended  the  plays,  been  gracious  to  artists  and  musicians, 
smiled  benignantly  upon  the  court  poet,  bored  the  reigning  prince,  enchant- 
ed the  reigning  princess,  amused  her  children,  and  ripened  into  a courtly  and 
garrulous  old  Polonius,  “ full  of  wise  saws  and  modern  instances.”  Above  all, 
he  would  have  upheld  the  prerogative  of  the  prince  with  stanch  sincerity. 
So  is  roi! 

There  is  something  in  the  Scotch  character  that  causes  it  to  relish  royal  pre- 
rogative. To  this  hour  there  are  in  Scotland  families  that  cherish  a kind  of 
sentimental  attachment  to  the  memory  of  the  Stuarts ; and  we  find  Scotchmen 
as  eminent  as  Hume,  Carlyle,  Lockhart,  Scott,  Wilson — men  of  distinguished 
liberality  in  some  provinces  of  thought — unable  to  widen  out  into  liberal  poli- 
tics. Bute  was  a lord  as  well  as  a Scotchman,  not  as  ignorant  nor  as  vulgar  as 
lords  in  that  generation  usually  were,  but  still  subject  to  the  lowering  influ- 
ences that  always  beset  a privileged  order ; predisposed,  too,  by  temperament 
to  the  worship  of  the  picturesque,  and  now  the  cherished  sharer  of  the  shy, 
proud,  gloomy  seclusion  of  the  family  upon  which  the  hopes  of  an  empire  were 
fixed.  He  showed  them  medals  and  pictures,  he  discoursed  of  music  and  ar- 
chitecture— two  of  his  most  pronounced  tastes  — and  he  nourished  every 
princely  prejudice  which  a wise  tutor  would  have  striven  to  eradicate. 

This  unfortunate  youth,  dull  offspring  of  the  stimulated  lust  of  ages,  was  an 
apt  pupil  in  the  Jacobin  theory  of  kingly  authority.  He  was  caught  one  day 
reading  the  book  written  at  the  instance  of  the  dethroned  James  II.  to  justify 
his  arbitrary  policy;  and  there  were  so  many  other  signs  of  the  heir  to  a con- 
stitutional throne  being  educated  in  unconstitutional  principles  that  Horace 
Walpole  drew  up  a formal  remonstrance  against  it  in  the  name  of  the  Whig 
families.  This  document,  which  was  privately  circulated,  produced  no  effect. 
Sols  roi/  That  remained  the  ruling  thought  in  the  mind  of  this  ignorant, 
proud,  moral  young  man,  about  to  fill  a place  which  conferred  more  obstructive 
power  than  any  other  in  the  world.  If  he  had  only  been  dissolute  in  that 
most  dissolute  age,  he  could  have  been  ruled  through  his  vices ; but  being 
strictly  moral  and  temperate,  he  was,  alas  ! always  himself;  and  he  had  at  his 
back  the  great  voiceless  multitude,  who  know  by  instinct  that  morality  is  the 
first  interest  of  civilized  human  nature,  and  who  honor  it  supremely  even  in 
this  crude,  rudimentary  form.  Your  dad  is  safe  on  his  throne,”  said  some 
boon  companion  of  George  IV.,  “ as  long  as  he  is  faithful  to  that  ugly  old  wom- 
an, your  mother.”  And  wise  old  Franklin  said,  “If  George  HI.  had  had  a bad 
private  character  and  John  Wilkes  a good  one,  he  might  have  turned  the  king 
out  of  his  dominions.”  Such  is  the  mighty  power  of  the  mere  indispensable 
rudiments  of  virtue,  its  mere  preliminary  corporeal  conditions.  A chaste  and 
temperate  fool  will  carry  the  day  nine  times  in  ten  over  profligate  genius. 

Riding  in  the  park  on  an  October  day  in  1760,  a messenger  delivered  to 


152 


CARICATUKE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


the  prince  a note  from  the  valet  de  chambre  of  his  grandfathei*,  George  IT. 
The  prince  had  coolly  arranged  with  this  valet,  while  yet  the  king  seemed  firm 
in  health,  that  at  the  moment  of  the  old  man’s  death  he  should  send  him  a 
note  bearing  a certain  mark  on  the  outside.  The  king,  a vigorous  old  man  of 
seventy-seven,  fell  dead  in  his  closet  at  seven  in  the  morning,  and  this  note 
bore  the  preconcerted  announcement  of  the  fact.  The  moral  and  steady  young 
man,  quietly  remarking  to  his  groom  that  his  horse  was  lame,  turned  about 
and  gently  rode  back  to  Kew.  Upon  dismounting  he  said  to  the  man,  “ I 
have  said  this  horse  is  lame;  I forbid  you  to  say  the  contrary.”  At  twenty- 
two  years  of  age  he  was  king.  Except  that  he  married,  a few  months  after,  a 
pliant,  adoring  German  princess,  his  accession  did  not  much  change  his  mode 
of  life.  He  still  lived  in  strict  seclusion,  shut  in  against  expanding  influences, 
accessible  at  all  times  only  to  one  man — him  of  the  good  legs  and  Jacobin 
mind,  Bute,  progenitor  of  the  Pope’s  recent  conquest,  and  Mr.  Disraeli’s  hero, 
Lothair. 

In  the  caricatures  of  the  next  fifty  years  we  see  the  ghastly  results.  His 


Loud  Bute,  1TG8. 


PuiNOESS  OF  Wales— Bute— Geouge  III. 


first  important  act  was  to  repel  from  his  counsels  humiliating  superiority  in 
the  person  of  William  Pitt,  the  darling  of  the  nation,  the  first  minister  of  the 
world,  and  one  of  the  three  great  orators  of  all  time.  In  his  stead  ruled  a long 
monotony  of  servile  incompetents,  beginning  with  Bute  himself,  continuing 
with  Grenville,  and  coming  at  last  to  Addington  and  Eldon,  the  king  keeping 
far  from  his  confidence  every  man  in  England  who  had  a gleam  of  public 
sense,  or  a touch  of  independent  spirit,  or  even  a sound  traditionary  attach- 
ment to  Whig  principles.  An  immovable  obstructive  to  the  true  interest  of 
his  country  at  every  crisis,  honoring  the  men  whom  the  better  sense  of  the 
nation  did  not  honor,  and  repressing  the  men  whom  wise  contemporaries  loved, 
and  whom  posterity  with  unanimous  voice  pronounces  the  glory  of  England  in 
that  age,  he  kept  the  country  in  bad  humor  during  most  of  his  reign,  put  her 
wrong  on  every  question  of  universal  interest,  lost  the  most  valuable  and  affec- 
tionate colonies  a country  ever  had,  kept  Europe  in  a broil  for  twenty -five 


ENGLISH  CARICATURE  IN  THE  REVOLUTIONARY  RSRIOD. 


153 


years,  and  developed  NTapoleon  Bonaparte  into  a destructive  lunatic  by  cre- 
ating for  him  a succession  of  opportunities  for  the  display  of  his  talent  for 
beating  armies  which  had  no  generals. 

A large  proportion  of  the  very  caricatures  of  the  period  have  something 
savage  in  them.  A visitor  to  the  library  of  the  British  Museum  curious  in 
such  matters  is  shown  ten  huge  folio  scrap-books  full  of  caricatures  relating  to 
this  reign,  most  of  them  of  great  size  and  blazing  with  color.  From  a gentle- 
man who  recently  inspected  these  volumes  we  learn  some  particulars  showing 
the  bad  temper,  bad  manners,  and  bad  morals  of  that  time,  all  three  aggravated 
bv  a kino*  whose  morals  were  excellent.  One  of  the  first  to  catch  the  eye  of  an 
American  is  a picture,  of  date  about  1765,  called  “A  New  Method  of  Maca- 
rony-making,  as  practiced  in  Boston^  North  America,”  which  represents  two 
men  tarring  and  feathering  another,  who  has  a halter  round  his  neck.  Of  the 
pictures  reflecting  upon 
Lord  Bute  and  the 
Princess  of  Wales  noth- 
ing need  be  said  except 
that  they  are  such  as 
might  be  expected  from 
the  caricaturists  of  that 
age.  Many  of  the  works 
of  Gillray  in  the  earlier 
years  of  George  III. 
were  of  guch  coarse- 
ness, extravagance,  and 
brutality  that  the  exhi- 
bition of  them  nowa- 
days would  subject  the 
vender  to  a prosecution 
by  the  Society  for  the 
Suppression  of  Vice.  Our  informant  adds : “ Their  savageness  and  filth  give 
one  a very  curious  idea  of  the  taste  of  our  grandfathers  and  our  great-grand- 
fathers, only  our  ancestors,  male  and  female,  could  hardly  have  been  as  bad 
as  they  are  represented.  Such  hideous  faces,  such  deformed  figures,  such 
monstrous  distortion  and  debasement,  such  genei-al  ugliness  and  sensuality,  op- 
press one  with  a feeling  of  melancholy  rather  than  exhilaration.  You  might 
as  well  be  merry  over  the  doings  of  Swift’s  Yahoos,  who  are  certainly  not 
more  offensive  than  some  of  Gillray’s  men  and  women.  Whether  in  home  or 
foreign  politics,  he  is  equally  unscrupulous.” 

Charles  James  Fox  was  the  hete  noire  of  Gillray.  He  delighted  in  depicting 
him  and  his  friends  in  as  odious  a light  as  possible,  giving  him  huge  beetle- 
brows,  heavy  jaws,  and  a swarthy  complexion.  The  famous  Westminster 
election,  at  which  the  beautiful  Duchess  of  Devonshire  won  a vote  for  Fox  by 


154 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


giving  a kiss  to  a butcher,  supplied  him  with  a rich  source  of  caricature.  Fox 
is  drawn  riding  on  the  back  of  the  lady;  and  again,  sitting  in  a tap-room  with 
the  duchess  on  his  knee ; and  in  another  picture,  hobnobbing  with  a coster- 
monger, while  the  duchess  has  her  shoes  mended  by  a cobbler,  and  pays  the 
cobbler’s  wife  with  a purse  of  gold.  Fox  chops  off  the  head  of  the  king;  he 
is  a traitor,  a republican,  a Jacobin,  a confederate  with  the  French,  a forestall- 
er,  a buyer-up  of  corn  with  which  to  feed  the  enemy,  a sot,  a gambler — every 
thing  that  is  bad.  His  very  death-bed  forms  the  subject  of  a brutal  caricature. 
The  noblest  traits  of  his  political  character  are  the  points  satirized.  His  great 
crimes  apparently  are  that  he  loved  freedom  abroad  as  well  as  at  home,  that 
he  strove  for  peace  with  France,  and  endeavored  to  do  justice  to  Ireland.  For 
this  he  is  depicted  as  the  secret  ally  of  Bonaparte  and  as  the  instigator  of  Irish 
rebellion.  The  ghosts  of  Lord  Edward  Fitzgerald,  Wolfe  Tone,  the  Sheares 
brothers,  Emmett,  and  other  Irish  martyrs  are  made  to  pass  before  Fox’s  bed, 
and  point  to  him  as  the  cause  of  their  rebellion  and  their  fate.  When  Burke 
went  over  to  the  Tories  he  then  became  the  favorite  of  Gillray,  who  before  had 
generally  represented  him  as  a Jesuit,  because  he  demanded  justice  for  the 
Catholics.  Now  he  is  the  savior  of  his  country,  and  the  terror  of  Fox,  Sheri- 
«lan,  and  Priestley.  Sheridan  is  depicted  as  a blazing  meteor  with  an  extreme- 
ly rubicund  nose.  There  is  a picture  of  the  Titans  attempting  to  scale  heaven, 
in  which  George  HI.  figures  as  a comical  Jupiter  launching  his  thunder-bolts 
at  the  Whig  Opposition.  Queen  Charlotte  is  slmwn  as  a miracle  of  ugliness. 
The  prodigality  of  the  Prince  of  Wales,  who  first  appears  as  a handsome 
young  man  with  long  powdered  hair,  totally  unlike  the  high-shouldered,  curly- 
wigged,  royal  Turveydrop  of  later  days,  is  contrasted  in  companion  pictures 
with  the  alleged  parsimony  of  his  parents.  He  is  represented  reveling  with 
inordinately  fat  but  handsome  women,  wLo  get  drunk,  hang  round  his  neck, 
and  indulge  in  familiarities.  The  popular  hope  that  marriage  would  reform 
him  suggested  a large  drawing,  in  which  the  slumbering  prince  is  visited  by  a 
descending  angel  in  the  likeness  of  the  unhappy  Caroline,  at  whose  approach 
a crowd  of  reprobates,  male  and  female,  hurry  away  into  darkness.  Thomas 
Paine  did  not  escape.  In  a picture  entitled  “ The  Rights  of  Man ; or,  Tommy 
Paine,  the  Little  American  Taylor,  taking  the  Measure  of  the  Crown  for  a New 
Pair  of  Revolution  Breeches,”  he  is  represented  as  the  traditional  starveling 
tailor,  ragged  and  slippered,  and  armed  with  an  immense  pair  of  shears.  He 
crouches  to  take  the  measure  of  an  enormous  crown,  while  uttering  much  ir- 
relevant nonsense.  This  precious  work  is  ‘‘humbly  dedicated  to  the  Jacobin 
clubs  of  France  and  England.” 

Bound  with  such  pictures  as  these  are  a vast  number  by  inferior  hands, 
most  of  which  are  indescribable,  the  standard  subjects  being  gluttony,  drunk- 
enness, incontinence,  and  fashion,  and  these  in  their  most  outrageous  manifesta- 
tions. They  serve  to  show  that  a stupid  king  in  that  age,  besides  corrupting 
Parliament  and  debauching  the  Press,  could  demoralize  the  popular  branch  of 


ENGLISH  CARICATURE  IN  THE  REVOLUTIONARY  PERIOD. 


155 


art.  The  visitor,  turning  from  this  collection  of  atrocities  and  ferocities,  finds 
liiinself  relenting  toward  the  unfortunate  old  king,  and  inclined  to  say  that  he 
was,  after  all,  only  the  head  noodle  of  his  kingdom.  Every  improvement  was 
mercilessly  burlesqued — steam,  gas,  the  purchase  of  the  Elgin  marbles ; pop- 
ular prejudices  were  nearly  always  flattered,  seldom  rebuked ; so  that  if  the 
caricatures  were  of  any  use  at  all  in  the  promulgation  of  truth,  they  served 
only  as  part  of  the  ordeal  that  tested  its  vitality. 

We  do  not  find  in  this  or  in  any  other  collection  many  satirical  pictures 
relating  to  the  revolution  which  ended  in  the  independence  of  the  American 
colonies.  There  was,  however,  one  gentleman  in  London  during  the  earlier 
phases  of  the  dispute  who  employed  caricature  and  burlesque  on  behalf  of 
America  with  matchless  skill.  He  is  described  in  the  London  Directory  for 
1770  in  these  words,  “ Franklin,  Benjamin,  Esq.,  agent  for  Philadelphia,  Craven 
Street,  Strand.”  The  effective  caricature  placed  at  the  beginning  of  this  chap- 
ter was  one  of  the  best  of  a long  series  of  efforts  to  avert  the  impending  con- 
flict. He  loved  his  country  with  the  peculiar  warmth  that  usually  animates 
citizens  who  live  in  a distant  outlying  province.  His  country,  when  he  de- 
signed that  caricature  and  wrote  the  well-known  burlesques  in  a similar  taste, 
was  not  Pennsylvania,  nor  America,  nor  England,  but  the  great  British  Empire, 
to  which  William  Pitt,  within  Franklin’s  own  life-time,  seemed  to  have  given 
an  ascendency  over  the  nations  of  the  earth  similar  to  that  which  Rome  had 
once  enjoyed.  It  was,  however,  only  on  the  coast  of  North  America  that 
Britain  possessed  colonies  loyal  and  free,  not  won  by  conquest  nor  by  diploma- 
cy, and  therefore  entitled  to  every  right  secured  by  the  British  Constitution. 
Franklin  loved  and  gloried  in  this  great  country  of  which  he  was  born  a citi- 
zen. He  deplored  the  measures  tliat  threatened  the  severance  of  those  colonies 
from  the  mother  country,  and  would  have  prevented  the  severance  if  the  king’s 
folly  had  been  any  thing  short  of  incurable.  The  most  wonderful  thing  in  the 
whole  controversy  was  that  the  argument,  fact,  and  fun  which  Franklin  wrote 
and  inspired,  from  1765  to  1774,  had  only  momentary  influence  on  the  course 
of  events.  Against  stupidity  the  gods  themselves  contend  in  vain.” 

His  twenty  “ Rules  for  Reducing  a Great  Empire  to  a Small  One,”  publish- 
ed three  years  before  the  caricature,  inculcated  the  same  lesson.  A great  em- 
pire, he  remarked,  was  in  one  particular  like  a great  cake : it  could  be  most 
easily  diminished  at  the  edges.  The  person,  therefore,  who  had  undertaken  the 
task  of  reducing  it  should  take  care  to  begin  at  the  remotest  provinces,  and 
not  till  after  they  were  lopped  off  cut  up  the  central  portion.  His  twenty 
“ Rules  ” are  merely  a humorous  history  of  the  British  colonial  policy  since  the 
accession  of  George  HI. : Don’t  incorporate  your  colonies  with  the  mother 
country,  quarter  troops  among  them,  appoint  for  their  governors  broken  gam- 
blers and  exhausted  roues,  despise  their  voluntary  grants,  and  harass  them 
with  novel  taxes.  By  such  measures  as  these  “ you  will  act  like  a wise  ginger- 
bread baker,  who,  to  facilitate  a division,  cuts  his  dough  half  through  at  the 


156 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


places  where,  when  baked,  he  would  have  it  broken  to  pieces.”  Franklin  also 
wrote  a shorter  burlesque,  pompously  headed,  An  Edict  of  the  King  of  Prus- 
sia,” in  which  that  monarch  was  supposed  to  claim  sovereign  rights  over  Great 
Britain  on  the  ground  that  the  island  had  been  colonized  by  Hengist,  Horsa, 
and  others,  subjects  of  “ our  renowned  ducal  ancestors.”  The  edict,  of  course, 
ordains  and  commands  precisely  those  absurd  things  which  the  Government  of 
Great  Britain  had  ordained  and  commanded  since  the  planting  of  the  colonies. 
Iron,  as  the  edict  duly  sets  forth,  had  been  discovered  in  the  island  of  Gi'eat 
Britain  by  ‘^our  colonists  there,”  who,  ‘^presuming  that  they  had  a natural 
right  to  make  the  best  use  they  could  of  the  natural  productions  of  their  coun- 
try,” had  erected  furnaces  and  forges  for  the  manufacture  of  the  same,  to  the 
detriment  of  the  manufacturers  of  Prussia.  This  must  be  instantly  stopped, 
and  all  the  iron  sent  to  Prussia  to  be  manufactured.  ‘^And  whereas  the  art 

and  mystery  of  making  hats 
lias  arrived  at  great  perfec- 
tion in  Prussia,”  and  ‘Ghe 
islanders  before  mentioned, 
being  in  possession  of  wool, 
beaver,  and  other  furs,  have 
presumptuously  conceived 
they  had  a right  to  take  some 
advantage  thereof  by  manu- 
facturing the  same  into  hats, 
to  the  prejudice  of  our  do- 
mestic manufacture,”  there- 
fore we  do  hereby  forbid 
them  to  do  so  any  more. 

AYe  call  this  piece  a bur- 
lesque, but  it  was  burlesque 
only  in  form.  Precisely  such 
restrictions  existed  upon  the  industry  of  the  American  colonists.  It  was  part 
of  the  protective  system  of  the  age,  and  not  much  more  unjust  than  the  parts 
of  the  same  system  to  which  the  descendants  of  those  colonists  have  since  sub- 
jected themselves. 

An  ignorant  man  at  the  head  of  a government,  however  honest  he  may  be, 
is  liable  to  make  fatal  mistakes  in  the  selection  of  his  ministers.  He  naturally 
dreads  the  close  inspection  of  minds  superior  Jo  his  own.  Pie  has  always  to 
be  on  his  good  behavior  before  them,  which  is  irksome.  lie  shares  the  stock 
prejudices  of  mankind,  one  of  which  is  a distrust  of  practiced  politicians.  But 
as  the  poorest  company  of  actors  will  get  through  a comedy  with  less  discredit 
than  the  best  amateurs,  so  an  administration  of party  hacks”  will  usually  car- 
ry on  a government  with  less  odious  failure  than  an  administration  composed 
of  better  men  without  experience  in  public  business.  George  III.  had,  more- 


Tiie  Gouty  Cot.ossus,  Wiuuiam  Pitt  (Loud  Chatham),  with  One 
Leg  in  London  and  the  Other  in  New  York.  (Loudon,  17C6.) 


ENGLISH  CAEICATUEE  IN  THE  EEVOLUTIONAEY  PEEIOD. 


157 


over,  a singularly  unfortunate  trait  for  a king  who  had  to  govern  by  party 
leaders — his  prejudices  against  individuals  were  inveterate.  Lord  Waldegrave 
remarked  “a  kind  of  unhappiness  in  his  temper”  while  he  was  still  a youth. 
“Whenever  he  is  displeased,  his  anger  does  not  break  out  with  heat  and  vio- 
lence, but  he  becomes  sullen  and  silent,  and  retires  to  his  closet,  not  to  com- 
pose his  mind  by  study  and  contemplation,  but  merely  to  indulge  the  melan- 
choly enjoyment  of  his  own  ill-humor.”  And  when  he  re-appeared,  it  was  but 
too  evident  that  he  had  not  forgotten  the  offense.  He  never  forgot,  he  seldom 
forgave.  “ The  same  strength  of  memory,”  as  Earl  Russell  once  wrote  of  him. 


Fox.  Lord  North, 

Tue  Mask  (Coalition). 


“ and  the  same  brooding  sullenness  against  those  who  opposed  his  will,  which 
had  been  observed  in  the  boy,  were  manifest  in  the  man.” 

This  peculiarity  of  character  always  prevented  the  formation  of  a proper 
ministry,  and  shortened  the  duration  of  every  ministry  which  was  approxi- 
mately proper.  During  the  first  ten  years  of  his  reign  his  dislike  of  William 
Pitt,  the  natural  chief  of  the  Whig  party,  confused  every  arrangement;  and 
during  the  next  twenty  years  the  most  cherished  object  of  his  policy  seemed 
to  be  to  keep  from  power  the  natural  successor  of  that  minister — Charles 
James  Fox.  The  ascendency  of  both  those  leaders  w*as  such  that  to  exclude 
them  from  power  was  to  paralyze  their  own  party,  and  prevent  the  free  play 


158 


CATIICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


of  politics  in  the  House  of  Commons.  It  reduced  the  poor  king  at  last  to  pit 
against  Hapoleon  Bonaparte  a young  rhetorician  of  defective  health,  William 
Pitt,  the  son  of  the  great  minister. 

That  renowned  “coalition”  between  Lord  North  and  Mr.  Fox  in  1783,  the 
theme  of  countless  caricatures  and  endless  invective,  illustrates  the  confus- 
ing influence  of  the  king.  During  the  whole 
period  of  the  American  Revolution,  Lord 
North,  as  the  head  of  the  ministry,  was  obliged 
to  execute  and  defend  the  king’s  policy,  much 
of  which  we  now  know  he  disapproved.  Nat- 
urally he  would  have  been  an  ally  of  Fox  years 
before,  and  they  could  either  have  prevented  or 
shortened  the  conflict.  The  spell  of  the  royal 
closet  and  the  personal  entreaties  of  the  king 
prevailed  over  his  better  judgment,  and  made 
him  the  antagonist  of  Fox.  At  length,  the  war 

“111  a committee  on  tne  sense  of  the  ° ® ’ 

nation,  Moved,  that  for  preventing  future  being  at  an  end  and  North  in  retirement,  En- 
disorders  and  dissensions,  the  heads  of  , , . ^ i i 

the  Mutiny  Act  be  brought  in,  and  suffer-  gland  saw  these  two  men,  wliose  nightly  con- 

ed  to  he  on  the  table  to-morrow.’’^^^^^  flicts  had  been  the  morning  news  for  ten  years, 

suddenly  forming  a “ coalition,”  united  in  the 
administration,  and  pledged  to  the  same  policy.  As  we  trace  the  successive 
steps  which  led  to  the  alliance  in  the  memoirs  and  diaries  of  the  time,  we  dis- 
cover that  it  was  not  so  much  the  coalition  as  the  previous  estrangement 
that  was  unnatural.  The  public,  however,  could  not  be  expected  to  see  it  in 
that  light,  and  an  uproar  greeted  the  reconciliation  that  greatly  aided  the  king 
in  getting  rid  of  the  obnoxious  Fox.  The  specimens  of  the  caricatures  to 
which  it  gave  rise,  presented  on  this  and  the  two  preceding  pages,  are  two  out 
of  a great  number  still  procurable. 


IIeaus  of  Fox  and  North. 


DURING  THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION. 


159 


CHAPTER  XIY. 

DURING  THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION. 

IN  France,  more  conspicuously  than  in  England,  kingship  broke  down  in  that 
century.  Louis  XV.,  born  in  a private  station,  might  have  risen  to  the 
ownership  of  a small  livery-stable,  in  which  position  his  neighbors,  commenting 
upon  his  character  in  the  candid  manner  of  French  neighbors,  would  have  epit- 
omized him  as  a cross,  proud  pig.  Those  dull  kings  who  finished  kingship  in 
Europe  possessed  but  one  trait  which  we  usually  associate  with  the  kingly 
character — pride — and  this  was  the  single  point  of  resemblance  between  Louis 
XV.  and  George  III.  Once  in  his  life,  it  is  related,  Louis  XV.  uttered  a few 
words  with  a vivacity  approaching  eloquence.  “Would  you  believe,”  said  he 
to  Madame  de  Pompadour,  “ that  there  is  a man  in  my  court  who  dares  to 
lift  his  eyes  to  one  of  my  daughters?”  He  was  blazing  with  passion  at  the 
thought  of  such  flagrant  impiety. 

And  was  there  ever,  since  sacred  childhood  first  appealed  for  protection 
to  the  human  heart,  a child  so  unhappily  placed  as  that  baby  king,  an  orphan, 
with  a roue  for  a guardian,  a smooth,  insinuating  priest  for  preceptor,  and  a 
dissolute  court  conspiring  to  corrupt  him?  The  priest,  who  represented  what 
then  passed  for  virtue,  taught  him  virtue  out  of  a dreary  catechism,  still  ex- 
tant, which  never  yet  elevated  or  nobly  formed  a human  soul — a dead,  false 
thing,  with  scarcely  an  atom  in  it  of  sound  nutrition  for  heart  or  mind.  But 
Cardinal  Fleury  had  some  success  with  his  pupil.  Thirty  years  after,  when 
Pompadour  was  supplying  him  with  fresh  young  girls  of  fourteen  and  fifteen, 
bought  from  their  mothers  by  her  for  this  purpose,  the  king’s  conscience  would 
not  permit  him  to  go  to  bed  until  he  had  knelt  down  by  the  side  of  the  timid 
victim,  and  required  her  to  join  him  in  saying  the  prescribed  prayers. 

The  courtiers  were  not  less  successful  in  their  endeavors.  At  the  tender 
age  of  six  years  they  provided  for  him  an  entertainment  which  gave  the  old 
Marquis  de  Dangeau  the  idea  that  they  had  formed  \k\Q purpose  of  “drying  up 
in  him  the  very  source  of  good  feeling.”  They  caused  thousands  of  sparrows 
to  be  let  loose  in  a vast  hall,  where  they  gave  the  boy  the  divertissement  of 
seeing  them  shoot  the  birds,  and  covering  all  the  floor  with  bloody,  fluttering, 
crying  victims.  He  doubtless  enjoyed  the  spectacle,  for  at  sixteen  he  shot  in 
cold  blood  a pointer  bred  by  himself,  and  accustomed  to  feed  from  his  hand. 
So  rude  was  he  at  seventeen,  the  chroniclers  tell  us,  that  the  courtiers  used  all 


160 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


their  arts  to  give  him  du  gollt  pour  les  femmes yhogmg  thereby  to  render  him 
more  polite  and  tractable.”  The  precise  manner  in  which  a bevy  of  illus- 
trious princesses  and  duchesses  sought  to  dehaucher  le  roi  during  one  of  the 
royal  hunts  is  detailed  in  the  diaries  and  satirized  in  the  epigrams  of  the  time. 

The  ladies,  long  frustrated  by  the  “ ferocity  ” of  the  youth,  who  cared  only 
for  hunting,  succeeded  at  last,  and  succeeded  with  the  applause  of  all  the  court. 
“ Every  one  else  has  a mistress,”  remarks  Barbier,  advocate  and  magistrate ; 
“why  shouldn’t  the  king?”  It  was  a long  reign  of  mistresses.  Changes  of 
ministry,  questions  of  peace  or  war,  promotions  and  appointments  of  generals 
and  admirals,  the  arrest  of  authors  and  nobles — all  were  traceable  to  the  will 
or  caprice  of  a mistress.  Frederick  of  Prussia  styled  Pompadour,  Petticoat 
the  Third,  which  some  one  was  kind  enough  to  report  to  her  ; and  when  Vol- 
taire, whom  she  “ protected,”  conveyed  to  the  Prussian  monarch  a compliment- 
ary message,  he  replied,  coldly,  “ I don’t  know  her.”  Maria  Theresa  of  Aus- 
tria, a proud  and  high-principled  lady,  stooped  to  recognize  her  existence,  and 
wrote  her  civil  notes.  If  there  is  any  truth  in  the  printed  gossip  of  the  in- 
nermost court  circles  of  that  period,  it  was  this  difference  in  the  treatment 
of  the  king’s  mistress  which  made  France  the  ally  of  Austria  in  the  Seven 
Years’  War. 

Would  the  reader  like  to  know  how  affairs  go  on  in  a court  governed  by  a 
mistress,  then  let  him  ponder  this  one  sample  anecdote,  related  by  i\\Q  femme 
d^  chamhre  of  Madame  de  Pompadour,  showing  how  she,/6mme  de  chamhre 
as  she  was,  obtained  a lieutenant’s  commission  in  the  army  for  one  of  her  re- 
lations. She  first  asked  “ madame ” for  the  commission;  but  as  madarae  was 
in  full  intrigue  to  remove  the  Minister  of  War,  this  application  did  not  suc- 
ceed. “ Pressed  by  my  family,”  the  femme  de  chamhre  relates,  “ who  could 
not  conceive  that,  hi  the  position  in  lohich  I loas,  it  could  be  difficult  for  me 
to  procure  a trifling  commission  for  a good  soldier,  I asked  it  directly  from  the 
minister  himself.  He  received  me  coldly,  and  gave  me  little  hope.  On  going 

out,  the  Marquis  de  V followed  me,  and  said  : ‘ You  desire  a commission. 

There  is  one  vacant,  which  has  been  promised  to  ^protege  of  mine;  but  if  you 
ai’e  willing  to  exchange  favors  with  me,  I will  yield  it  to  you.  What  I desire 
is  to  play  the  part  of  Exempt  de  Police  in  “ Tartuffe  ” the  next  time  rnadame 
gives  it  in  the  palace  before  the  king.  It  is  a rdle  of  a few  lines  only.  Get 
rnadame  to  assign  that  part  to  me,  and  the  lieutenancy  is  yours.’  I told  ma- 
dame  of  this.  The  thing  was  done.  I obtained  my  lieutenancy,  and  the  mar- 
quis thanked  rnadame  for  the  role  as  warmly  as  if  she  had  made  him  a duke.” 

Generals  were  appointed  to  the  command  of  expeditions  for  no  better  rea- 
son than  this.  Tliat  Pompadour  drew  thirty-six  millions  of  francs  from  the 
“ royal  treasury,”  ^.  e.,  from  the  earnings  of  the  frugal  and  laborious  French 
people,  could  easily  have  been  borne.  It  was  government  by  mistresses  and 
for  mistresses,  the  government  of  ignorant  and  idle  caprice,  that  broke  down 
monarchy  in  France  and  set  the  world  on  fire.  Of  the  evils  which  corrupt 


DURING  THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION. 


161 


rulers  bring  upon  communities,  the  waste  of  the  people’s  money  (though  that 
is  a great  evil  in  so  poor  a world  as  ours,  with  such  crowds  of  poor  relations 
and  so  much  to  be  done)  is  among  the  least.  It  is  the  absence  of  intelligence 
and  public  spirit  in  the  Government  that  brings  on  ruin. 

‘‘As  long  as  I live,”  said  Louis  XV.  one  day  to  Madame  de  Pompadour, 
“ I shall  be  the  master,  to  do  as  I like.  But  my  grandson  will  have  trouble.” 
Madame  was  of  the  same  mind,  but  gave  it  neater  expression : “After  us  the 
deluge.” 

The  world  is  familiar  with  the  tragic  incidents  of  the  sudden  collapse  of 
the  monarchy.  Except  during  the  Reign  of  Terror,  which  was  short,  the  cari- 


Assemuly  of  the  Notahles  at  Paris,  February  22d,  1787.* 

“Dear  objects  of  my  care,  I have  assembled  you  to  ascertain  'with  what  sauce  you  want  to  be  eaten.” 
“But  we  don’t  want  to  be  eaten  at  all.” 

“ You  are  departing  from  the  question.” 

caturists,  whether  with  the  pen  or  the  pencil,  played  their  usual  part.  It  was 
almost  impossible  to  caricature  the  abuses  of  the  times,  so  monstrous  was  the 
reality.  The  “ local  hits”  in  Beaumarchais’  “ Marriage  of  Figaro,”  played  with 
rapturous  applause  a hundred  nights  in  1784,  were  little  more  than  the  truth 
given  with  epigrammatic  brevity.  When  the  saucy  page,  Cherubin,  confessed 
that  he  had  behaved  very  badly,  but  rested  his  defense  upon  the  fact  that  he 
had  never  been  guilty  of  the  slightest  indiscretion  in  icords,  and  so  obtained 
both  pardon  and  promotion,  the  audience  must  have  felt  the  perfect  congruity 


* Champfleuiy,  “Histoire  de  la  Caricature  sous  la  Republique,”  etc.,  p.  5. 

11 


162 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


of  the  incident  with  the  moral  code  of  the  period.  In  Figaro’s  famous  dis- 
course on  the  English  God-dam  there  is,  indeed,  a touch  of  caricature : “A  fine 
language  the  English ; a little  of  it  goes  a great  way.  The  English  people,  it  is 
true,  throw  in  some  other  words  in  the  course  of  conversation,  but  it  is  very 
easy  to  see  that  God-dam  is  the  basis  of  their  language.”  When  he  descants 
upon  politics,  he  rarely  goes  beyond  the  truth : “Ability  advance  a man  in  the 
Government  bureaus ! My  lord  is  laughing  at  me.  Be  commonplace  and 
obsequious,  and  you  get  every  thing.”  Figaro  gives  the  whole  art  of  French 
politics  in  a few  words : “ To  pretend  you  don’t  know  what  you  do  know,  and 
to  know  what  you  don’t ; to  hear  what  you  understand,  and  not  to  hear  what 

you  don’t  understand ; and  especially  to 
pretend  you  can  do  a great  deal  more 
than  you  can ; often  to  have  for  a very 
great  secret  that  there  is  no  secret;  to 
shut  yourself  up  to  mend  pens  and  seem 
profound,  when  you  are  only  empty  and 
hollow;  to  play  well  or  ill  the  part  of  a 
personage;  to  spread  abroad  spies  and 
pensioned  traitors ; to  melt  seals,  inter- 
cept letters,  and  try  to  ennoble  the  pov- 
erty of  the  means  by  the  importance  of 
the  ends  — may  I die  if  that  isn’t  all 
there  is  of  politics.”  It  is  a good  hit 
of  Susan’s  when  she  says  that  vapors 
are  “a  disease  of  quality,”  only  to  be 
taken  in  boudoirs.  A poor  woman 
whose  cause  is  coming  on  at  court 
remarks  that  selling  judgeships  is  a 
great  abuse.  “You  are  right,”  says 
the  dolt  of  a magistrate;  “we  ought  to 
get  them  for  nothing.”  And  how  a Paris  audience,  in  the  temper  of  1789, 
must  have  relished  the  hits  at  the  hereditary  principle:  “It  is  no  matter  whence 
you  came;  the  important  question  is,  whither  are  you  bound  ?”  “What  have 
you  done,  my  lord,  to  merit  so  many  advantages — ^rank,  fortune,  place?  You 
took  the  trouble  to  be  born,  nothing  more.”  We  can  fancy,  too,  how  such 
touches  as  this  might  bring  down  the  house : “ I was  thought  of  for  an  ofiEice, 
but  unfortunately  I was  fit  for  it.  An  arithmetician  was  wanted;  a dancer 
got  it.” 

All  men,  as  Mr.  Carlyle  observes,  laughed  at  these  jests,  and  none  louder 
than  the  persons  satirized — “ a gay  horse-racing  Anglo-maniac  noblesse  loudest 
of  all.” 


Chatnpfleuiy,  “ Uistoire  de  la  Caricature  sous  la  Republique,”  p.  81. 


DURING  THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION. 


163 


The  first  picture  given  in  these  pages  relating  to  the  French  Revolution, 
‘‘The  Assembly  of  the  Notables,”  is  one  of  the  most  celebrated  caricatures 
ever  produced,  and  one  of  the  best.  Setting  aside  one  or  two  of  Thackeray’s, 
two  or  three  of  Gillray’s,  and  half  a dozen  of  Mr.  Nast’s,  it  would  be  difficult  to 
find  its  equal.  It  may  be  said,  however,  that  the  force  of  the  satire  is  wholly 
in  the  words,  which,  indeed,  have  since  become  one  of  the  stock  jokes  of 
French  Joe  Millers.  The  picture  appeared  in  lYSY,  when  the  deficit  in  the 
revenue,  after  having  widened  for  many  years,  had  become  most  alarming,  and 
it  was  at  length  proposed  to  tax  the  nobility,  clergy,  and  magistrates,  hitherto 
exempt  from  vulgar  taxation.  But  the  Assembly  of  the  Notables,  which  was 
chiefly  composed  of  the  exempt,  preferred  to  prolong  inquiry  into  the  causes 
of  the  deficit,  and  showed  an  unconquerable  reluctance  to  impose  a tax  upon 
themselves.  It  was  during  this  delay,  so  fatal  to  the  monarchy,  that  the  cari- 
cature appeared.  There  must  have  been  more  than  one  version  of  the  work, 
for  the  one  described  by  Mr.  Carlyle  in  his  “History  of  the  French  Revolu- 
tion ” differs  in  several  particulars  from  that  which  we  take  from  M.  Champ- 
fleury.  Mr.  Carlyle  says : “A  rustic  is  represented  convoking  the  poultry  of 
his  barn-yard  with  this  opening  address,  ‘ Dear  animals^  I have  assembled  you 
to  advise  me  what  sauce  I shall  dress  you  with,’  to  which  a cock  responding, 
‘ We  don’t  want  to  be  eaten,’  is  checked  by,  ‘ You  wander  from  the  point !’  ” 
The  outbreak  of  the  Revolution  in  IVSO  menaced  Europe  with  one  of  the 
greatest  of  all  evils — the  premature  adoption  of  liberal  institutions.  Forever 
vain  and  always  fruitful  of  prodigious  evil  will  be  attempts  to  found  a gov- 
ernment by  the  whole  people  where  the  mass  of  the  working  population  are 
grossly  ignorant  and  superstitious.  The  reason  is  known  to  all  who  have  had 
an  opportunity  of  closely  observing  the  workings  of  such  minds.  They  can 
only  be  swayed  by  arts  which  honest  intelligence  can  not  use,  and  therefore 
they  will  be  usually  governed  by  men  who  have  an  interest  in  misleading  them. 
Great  Britain  was  nearer  a republic  than  any  other  nation  in  Europe ; but  En- 
gland, too,  needed  another  century  to  get  the  tap-room  reduced,  the  people’s 
school  developed  in  every  parish,  and  the  educated  class  intensely  alive  to  the 
“ folly  of  heaping  importance  upon  idiots.” 

Edmund  Burke  was  the  man  who,  more  than  any  other,  held  England  back 
from  revolution  in  1792.  Rational  appeals  to  the  rational  faculty  could  not 
have  availed.  Appalled  at  what  he  saw  in  France,  Burke,  after  thirty  years’ 
advocacy  of  liberal  principles,  and  assisting  to  create  a republic  in  America, 
became  a fanatic  of  conservatism,  and  terrified  England  into  standing  by  the 
monarchy.  He  was  alarmed  even  at  the  influx  of  Frenchmen  into  England, 
flying  from  La  Lanterne,  and  he  gave  vehement  support  to  the  Alien  Act, 
which  authorized  the  summary  expulsion  from  the  kingdom  of  foreigners  sus- 
pected by  the  Government.  Vehement?  Some  of  his  sentences  read  like  lu- 
nacy. It  was  in  the  course  of  this  debate  that  the  celebrated  dagger  scene 
occurred  which  Gill  ray  has  satirized  in  the  picture  on  the  following  page.  A 


164 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


wild  tale  reached  his  ears  of  the  manufacture  of  daggers  at  Birmingham  for 
the  use  of  French  Jacobins  in  England,  and  one  of  them  was  given  him  as  a 
specimen.  It  was  an  implement  of  such  undecided  form  that  it  might  have 
served  as  a dagger,  a pike-head,  or  a carving-knife.  He  dashed  it  upon  the 
floor  of  the  House  of  Commons,  almost  hitting  the  foot  of  an  honorable  mem- 
ber, and  proceeded  to  declaim  against  the  unhappy  exiles  in  the  highest  style 
of  absurdity.  “ When  they  smile,”  said  he,  “ I see  blood  trickling  down  their 


DURING  THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION. 


165 


faces;  I see  their  insidious  purposes;  I see  that  the  object  of  all  their  cajoling 
is  blood.”  A pause  ensued  after  the  orator  had  spoken  a while  in  this  strain. 
“You  have  thrown  down  a knife,”  said  Sheridan;  “where  is  the  fork?”  A 
shout  of  laughter  followed  this  sally,  which  relieved  the  suppressed  feelings  of 
tlie  House,  but  spoiled  the  “effect”  of  Mr.  Burke’s  performance. 

In  the  French  caricatures  that  have  come  to  us  from  the  period  of  the 
Revolution  (many  hundreds  in  number)  every  phase  of  the  struggle  is  exhib- 


The  Zenith  of  French  Glory— A View  in  Perspective.  (Gillray,  London,  1793.) 


ited  with  French  Jifiesse.  There  is  even  an  elegance  in  some  of  their  Revolu- 
tionary caricatures.  How  exquisite,  for  example,  the  picture  which  presents 
the  first  protest  of  the  Third  Estate,  its  first  attempt  to  be  Something  in  the 
nation  which  it  maintained!  We  see  a lofty  and  beautiful  chariot  or  car  of 
triumph,  in  which  king,  nobleman,  and  clergy  gracefully  ride,  drawn  by  a pair 
of  doves.  The  Third  Estate  is  merely  the  beaten  road  on  which  the  whole 
structure  moves.  NTothing  could  more  elegantly  satirize  the  sentimental  stage 
of  the  Revolution,  when  the  accumulated  abuses  of  centuries  were  all  to  disap- 


166 


CARICATUKE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


Tue  Estates.  (Paris,  ITSy.) 


pear  amidst  a universal  effusion  of  brotherly  love,  while  king,  lords,  and  clergy 

rode  airily  along  as  before, 
borne  up  by  a mute,  sub- 
missive nation ! When  at 
last  the  Third  Estate  had 
become  “ Something  ” in 
the  nation,  a large  number 
of  sentimental  pictures  sig- 
nalized the  event.  In  one 
we  see  priest,  noble,  and 
peasant  clasped  in  a fer- 
vent embrace,  the  noble 
trampling  under  foot  a 
sheet  of  paper  upon  which 
is  printed  Grandeurs,” 
the  priest  treading  upon  “Benefices,”  the  peasant  upon  “Hate.”  All  wear  the 
tricolor  cockade,  and  un- 
derneath is  written,  “The 
wish  accomplished.  This 
is  as  I ever  desired  it 
should  be.”  In  another 
picture  priest,  noble,  and 
peasant  are  playing  to- 
gether upon  instruments — 
the  priest  upon  a serpent- 
shaped trumpet,  the  noble 
upon  a pipe,  and  the  peas- 
ant upon  the  violin  — the 
peasant  in  the  middle, 
leading  the  performance, 
and  exchanging  looks  of 
complacent  affection  with 
the  others. 

But  even  in  the  mo- 
ment of  triumph  the  ef- 
fusion was  not  universal. 

There  are  always  disa- 
greeable people  who  doubt 
the  duration  of  a millen- 
nium as  soon  as  it  has 
begun.  Caricatures  rep- 
resented the  three  orders 
dancing  together.  “Will 


The  New  Caevary.  (Pans,  1792.) 

Louis  XVI,  crucified  by  the  rebels  ; Monsieur  and  the  Comte  d’ Artois 
bound  by  the  decrees  of  the  factions;  Kobespierre,  mounted  upon  the 
Constitution,  presents  the  sponge  soaked  in  regicides’  gall;  the  Queen, 
overwhelmed  with  grief,  demands  speedy  vengeance ; the  Duchess  de 
Polignac,  etc. 


DURING  THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION. 


167 


it  last?  won’t  it  last?”  sings  a by-stander,  using  the  refrain  of  an  old  song. 
“It  is  I who  must  pay  the  fiddler,”  cries  the  noble  to  the  priest.  From  being 
fraternal,  the  Third  Estate  became  patronizing.  The  three  orders  sit  together 
in  a cafe,  and  the  peasant  says,  familiarly,  “All  right;  every  man  pays  his  own 
shot.”  A picture  entitled  “ Old  Times  and  the  New  Time  ” bore  the  inscrip- 
tion, “ Formerly  the  most  useful  class  carried  the  load,  and  was  trodden  under 
foot.  To-day  all  share  the  burden  alike.”  From  patronizing  and  condescend- 
ing, the  Third  Estate,  as  all  the  world  knows,  speedily  became  aggressive  and 
arbitrary.  “Down  with  taxes  !”  appeared  on  some  of  the  caricatures  of  1789, 
when  the  public  treasury  was  running  dry.  An  extremely  popular  picture, 
often  repeated,  exhibits  a peasant  wearing  the  costume  of  all  the  orders,  with 
the  well-known  inscription,  so  false  and  so  fatal,  “A  single  One  makes  the 
Three.”  An  ignorant  family  is  depicted  listening  with  gaping  eagerness  to 
one  who  reveals  to  them  that  they  too  are  the  order  of  which  they  have  been 
hearing  such  fine  things.  “ We  belong  to  the  Third  Estate  !”  they  exclaim, 
with  the  triumphant  glee  of  M.  Jourdain  when  he  heard  that  he  had  been 
speaking  “prose”  all  his  life  without  knowing  it. 

But  peace  and  plenty  did  not  come  to  the  poor  man’s  cottage,  and  the  cari- 
caturists began  to  mock  his  dream  of  a better  day.  We  see  in  one  of  the  pict- 
ures of  1790  a father  of  a family  in  chains,  with  his  eyes  fixed  in  ecstasy  upon 
a beam  of  light,  labeled  “Hope.”  In  another,  poor  Louis  XVI.  is  styled  “The 
Restorer  of  Liberty”’  but  underneath  we  read  the  sad  question,  “JS'A  Me?i,  but 
when  will  that  put  the  chicken  in  the  pot?”  A devil  entering  a hovel  is  set 
upon  by  a peasant,  who  pummels  him  with  a stick,  while  an  old  man  cries  out, 
“Hit  him  hard,  hard,  my  son;  he  is  an  aristocrat;”  and  under  the  whole  is 
written,  “ Is  the  devil,  then,  to  be  always  at  our  door?”  Again,  we  have  the 
three  orders  forging  the  constitution  with  great  ardor,  the  blacksmith  holding 
the  book  on  the  anvil,  while  the  priest  and  noble  swung  the  sledge-hammer. 
Under  the  picture  is  the  French  smith’s  refrain,  Tot-tot-tot,  Battez  chaud,  Tot- 
tot-totT  From  an  abyss  a working-man  draws  a bundle  of  papers  bearing  the 
words,  “The  New  Constitution,  the  Desire  of  the  Nation,”  saying,  as  he  does 
so,  “Ah,  I shall  be  well  content  when  I have  all  those  papers !” 

The  popular  pictures  grew  ill-tempered  as  the  hopes  of  the  people  declined, 
and  the  word  aristocrat  became  synonymous  with  all  that  is  most  hostile  to 
the  happiness  of  man.  A devil  attired  as  a priest,  teaching  a school  of  little 
aristocrats,  extols  the  massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew.  Citizens  and  soldiers  are 
in  full  cry  after  a many -headed  monster  labeled  “Aristocracy.”  An  ass  pre- 
sides over  a court  of  justice,  and  the  picture  is  inscribed,  “The  Ass  on  the 
Bench;  or,  the  End  of  Old  Times.”  The  clergy  came  in  for  their  ample  share 
of  ridicule  and  vituperation.  “What  do  we  want  with  monks?”  exclaimed  an 
orator  from  the  tribune  of  the  Assembly  in  1790.  “If  you  tell  me,”  he  con- 
tinued, “that  it  is  just  to  allow  pious  men  the  liberty  to  lead  a sedentary,  soli- 
tary, or  contemplative  life,  my  answer  is,  that  every  man  can  be  sedentary,  soli- 


168 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


tary,  or  contemplative  in  his  own  room.”  Another  speaker  said, ‘‘If  England 
to-day  is  flourishing,  she  owes  it  in  part  to  the  abolition  of  the  religious  or- 
ders.” The  caricaturists  did  not  delay  to  aim  their  shafts  at  this  new  game. 
We  see  nuns  trying  on  fashionable  head-dresses,  and  friars  blundering  through 
a military  exercise.  The  spectacle  was  exhibited  to  Europe  of  a people  raging 
with  contemptuous  hate  of  every  thing  which  had  from  time  immemorial  been 
held  in  honor. 

As  time  wore  on,  after  every  other  order  in  the  State  had  been  in  turn  the 
object  of  special  animosity,  the  royal  family,  the  envied  victims  of  the  old  state 


President  of  a Revolutionary  Committee  amusing  Himself  with  ms  Art  defure  the  Session  begins, 

(Paris,  1793.) 

of  things,  became  the  unpitied  victims  of  the  new.  Until  their  ill-starred  at- 
tempt to  escape  from  France  in  June,  1792,  there  remained  some  little  respect 
for  the  king,  and  some  tenderness  for  his  children.  The  picture  given  else- 
where of  the  crucifixion  of  the  king  was  published  by  his  adherents  some 
months  before  the  crisis  as  figurative  of  his  sufferings,  not  as  prophetic  of 
liis  fate.  But  there  was  neither  respect  nor  pity  for  the  unhappy  man  after 
his  blundering  attempt  to  leave  the  country.  An  explosion  of  caricature  fol- 
lowed. Before  that  event  satirical  pictures  had  been  exposed  only  in  the  print- 


DURING  THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION. 


169 


sellers’  windows,  but  now,  as  M.  Bayer  records,  ‘^caricatures  were  sold  wher- 
ever any  thing  was  sold.”  The  Jacobin  Club,  he  adds,  as  often  as  they  had  a 
point  to  carry,  caused  caricatures  to  be  made,  which  the  shop-keepers  found  it 
to  their  interest  to  keep  for  sale. 

A large  number  of  the  pictures  which  appeared  during  the  last  months  of 
the  king’s  life  have  been  preserved.  At  an  earlier  stage  of  the  movement  both 
friends  and  foes  of  the  monarchy  used  the  satiric  pencil,  but  now  there  was 
none  to  take  the  side  of  this  bewildered  family,  and  the  pictures  aimed  at  them 
were  hard  and  pitiless.  The  reader  has  but  to  turn  to  the  specimen  here 
given,  which  was  called  forth  by  the  trajisfer  of  the  royal  family  from  their 
home  in  the  Tuileries  to  their  prison  in  the  Temple,  to  comprehend  the  spirit 
of  those  productions.  In  others  we  find  the  king  represented  as  a blind  man 
groping  his  way;  as  a baby;  as  an  idiot  who  breaks  his  playthings  and  throws 
away  his  crown  and  sceptre.  The  queen  excited  a deeper  feeling.  The  Paris- 


Rare  Animals;  or,  Tue  Transfer  of  the  Royal  Family  from  the  Tdileiues  to  the  Temple,  (Chainp- 

fleury,  1T92.) 

ians  of  1792  appear  to  have  had  for  that  most  unhappy  of  w'omen  only  feelings 
of  diabolical  hate.  She  called  fortli  all  the  tiger  which,  according  to  Voltaire, 
is  an  ingredient  in  the  French  character.  The  caricaturists  liked  to  invest  her 
wdth  the  qualities  and  the  form  of  a tigress,  living  in  a monstrous  alliance  with 
a king-ram,  and  becoming  the  mother  of  monsters.  The  foolish  tale  of  her 
saying  that  she  would  quench  her  tliirst  with  the  blood  of  Frenchmen  was 
treated  by  the  draughtsmen  of  the  day  as  though  it  were  an  unquestionable  fact. 

Never  was  a woman  so  hated  as  she  was  by  infuriate  Paris  in  1792.  Nev- 
er was  womanhood  so  outraged  as  in  some  of  the  caricatures  of  that  period. 
Nothing  relating  to  her  had  any  kind  of  sacredness.  Her  ancestors,  her  coun- 
try, her  mother,  her  children,  her  love  for  her  children,  her  attachment  to  her 
husband,  were  all  exhibited  in  the  most  odious  light  as  so  many  additional 
crimes  against  liberty.  Need  it  be  said  that  her  person  was  not  spared  ? The 


170 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


single  talent  in  which  the  French  excel  all  the  rest  of  the  human  family  is  that 
of  subtly  insinuating  indecency  by  pen  and  pencil.  But  they  did  not  employ 
tills  talent  in  the  treatment  of  Marie  Antoinette  when  she  was  about  to  redeem 
a frivolous  life  by  a dignified  death.  With  hideous  indecency  they  presented 
her  to  the  scorn  of  the  public,  as  African  savages  might  exhibit  the  favorite 
wife  of  a hostile  chief  when  they  had  brought  her  to  their  stinking  village  a 
captive,  bound,  naked,  and  defiled. 

And  so  passed  away  forever  from  the  minds  of  men  the  sense  of  the  divin- 
ity that  once  had  hedged  in  a king.  But  so  congenial  to  minds  immature  or 
unformed  is  the  idea  of  hereditary  chieftainship  that  to  this  day  in  Europe  the 
semblance  of  a king  seems  the  easiest  resource  against  anarchy.  Yet  kings 
were  put  upon  their  good  behavior,  to  hold  their  places  until  majorities  learn 
to  control  their  propensities  and  use  their  minds. 


Aristocrat  and  Democrat.  (Paris,  1198.) 
ristocrat.  “ Take  care  of  your  cap.” 
Democrat.  “ Look  out  for  your  queue.” 


CARICATURES  OF  WOMEN  AND  MATRIMONY. 


171 


CHAPTER  XV. 


CARICATURES  OF  WOMEN  AND  MATRIMONY. 

OBSERVE  this  picture  of  man’s  scorn  of  woman,  drawn  by  Gavarni,  the 
most  noted  of  French  caricaturists.  ' I place  it  first,  because  it  expresses 
the  feeling  toward  “the  subject  sex”  which  satiric  art  has  oftenest  exhibited, 
and  because  it  was  execu- 

, , , , Wm  1 li luiii iiiUM.inmmj^jiL'1!! |MAj|  ' m ii''iiii I'liaii iiii in' l llin i FIJI! FiiiiaiuiiiiTi 

ted  by  the  person  who  ex- 
celled all  others  in  delineat- 
ing what  he  called  the  four- 
heries  de  femmes.  Such, 
in  all  tirne,  has  been  the 
habitual  tone  of  self-indul- 
gent men  toward  their  vic- 
tims. Gavarni  well  repre- 
sents men  in  this  sorry  bus- 
iness of  reviling  women ; 
for  in  all  the  old  civiliza- 
tions men  in  general  have 
done  precisely  what  Ga- 
varni did  recently  in  Par- 
is— first  degraded  women, 
then  laughed  at  them. 

The  reader,  perhaps, 
after  witnessing  some  of 
the  French  plays  and  com- 
ic operas  with  which  we 
have  been  favored  in  re- 
cent years — such  as  “ Frou- 
Frou,”  “The  Sphinx,” 

“Alixe,”  and  others — may 
have  turned  in  wild  amaze- 


“i"oM fiaiik  I simple!  Have  confidence  in  7/o?i  / You!  Why, 

yon  would  blow  your  nose  Avith  your  left  hand  for  nothing  but  the 
pleasure  of  deceiving  your  right,  if  you  could  1” — Gavakni,  Fourheries 
de  Femmes,  Paris,  1846. 


ment  to  some  friend  familiar  with  Paris  from  long  residence,  and  asked,  Is 
there  any  truth  in  this  picture?  Are  there  any  people  in  France  who  behave 
and  live  as  these  people  on  the  stage  behave  and  live?  Many  there  can  not 
be;  for  no  community  could  exist  half  a generation  if  the  majority  lived  so. 
But  are  there  any?  The  correct  answer  to  this  question  was  probably  given 


172 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


the  other  evening  by  a person  accustomed  to  Paris  life:  “ Yes,  there  are  some; 
they  are  the  people  who  write  such  stuff  as  this.  As  for  the  hal  masque,^  and 
things  of  that  kind,  it  is  a mere  business,  the  simple  object  of  which  is  to  be- 
guile and  despoil  the  verdant  of  every  land  who  go  to  Paris  in  quest  of  pleas- 
ure.” French  plays  and  novels  we  know  do  most  ludicrously  misrepresent  the 
people  of  other  countries.  What,  for  example,  can  be  less  like  truth  than  that 
solemn  donkey  of  a Scotch  duke  in  M.  Octave  Feuillet’s  play  of  ‘‘The  Sphinx?” 
The  dukes  of  Scotland  are  not  so  numerous  nor  so  unconspicuous  a body  of  men 
that  they  can  not  be  known  to  a curious  inquirer,  and  it  is  safe  to  assert  that, 
whatever  their  faults  may  be,  there  is  not  among  them  a creature  so  unspeak- 
ably absurd  as  the  viveur  infernal  of  this  play.  If  the  author  is  so  far  astray 
with  his  Scotch  duke,  he  is  perhaps  not  so  very  much  nearer  the  truth  with 
his  French  marquis,  a personage  equally  foreign  to  his  experience. 

We  had  in  New  York  some  years  ago  a dozen  or  two  of  young  fellows, 
more  or  less  connected  with  the  press,  most  of  them  of  foreign  origin,  who 
cherished  the  delusion  that  eating  a bad  siq^per  in  a cellar  late  at  night,  and 
uttering  or  singing  semi -drunken  nonsense,  was  an  exceedingly  noble,  high- 
spirited,  and  literary  way  of  consuming  a weakly  constitution  and  a small  sal- 
ary, They  thought  they  were  doing  something  in  the  manner  of  Dr.  Johnson 
and  Charles  Lamb.  Any  one  who  should  have  judged  New  York  in  the  year 
1855  by  the  writings  of  these  young  gentlemen  would  have  supposed  that  we 
were  wholly  given  up  to  silly,  vulgar,  and  reckless  dissipation.  But,  in  truth, 
the  “ Bohemians,”  as  they  were  proud  to  be  styled,  were  both  few  and  insig- 
nificant; their  morning  scribblings  expressed  nothing  but  the  looseness  of 
their  own  lives,  and  that  was  half  pretense. 

Two  admiring  friends  have  written  the  life  of  Gavarni,  the  incomparable 
caricaturist  of  la  femme ; and  they  tell  us  just  how  and  where  and  when  the 
artist  acquired  his  “ subtle  and  profound  knowledge  ” of  the  sex.  It  is  but 
too  plain  that  he  knew  but  one  class  of  women,  the  class  that  lives  by  deluding 
fools.  “ During  all  one  year,  1835,”  say  these  admiring  biographers,  “ it  seems 
that  in  the  life,  the  days,  the  thoughts  of  Gavarni,  there  was  nothing  but  la 
femme.  According  to  his  own  expression,  woman  was  his  ‘grand  affair.’” 
He  was  in  love,  then?  By  no  means.  Our  admiring  authors  proceed  to  de- 
scribe this  year  of  devotion  to  la  femme  as  a period  when  “ intrigues  were 
mingled  together,  crossed  and  entangled  with  one  another;  when  passing  in- 
clinations, the  fancies  of  an  evening,  started  into  being  together  with  new  pas- 
sions ; when  rendezvous  pressed  upon  rendezvous ; when  there  fell  upon  Ga- 
varni a rain  of  perfumed  notes  from  the  loves  of  yesterday,  from  the  forgotten 
loves  of  last  month,  which  he  inclosed  in  one  envelope,  as  he  said,  ‘like  dead 
friends  in  the  same  coffin.’ 

The  authors  enlarge  upon  this  congenial  theme,  describing  their  hero  as 


* “ Gavarni,  THomme  et  I'CEuvre,”  par  Edmond  et  Jules  de  Goncourt,  Paris,  1873. 


CARICATURES  OF  WOMEN  AND  MATRIMONY. 


173 


going  forth  upon  le  pave  de  Paris  in  quest  of  la  femme  as  a keen  hunter  takes 
to  the  forest  for  the  plump  partridge  or  the  bounding  deer.  Some  he  brought 
down  with  the  resistless  magnetism  of  his  eye.  “ It  was  for  him  a veritable 
rapture,  as  well  as  the  exertion  of  a power  which  he  loved  to  try,  to  magnetize 
with  his  eye  and  make  his  own  the  first  woman  whom  he  chanced  to  meet  in 


“A  monkey,  a magpie,  and  wife 
Is  the  true  emblem  of  strife.” 

Old  English  Tavern  Sign. 

the  throng.”  The  substance  of  the  chapter  is  that  Gavarni,  casting  aside  all 
the  restraints  of  civilization  and  decency,  lived  in  Paris  the  life  of  a low  and 
dirty  animal ; and  when,  in  consequence  of  so  living,  he  found  himself  in  Clichy 
for  debt,  he  replenished  his  purse  by  delineating,  as  ihe  fourheries  de  femmes^ 
the  tricks  of  the  dissolute  women  who  had  got  his  money.  That,  at  least,  is 
the  blunt  American  of  our  authors’  dainty  and  elegant  French. 


* “ From  History  of  Sign-boards,”  by  Larwood  and  Hotten. 


174 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


Ill  the  recoi’cls  of  the  past,  we  find  men  speaking  lightly  of  women  whose 
laws  and  usages  concede  least  to  women. 

The  oldest  thing  accessible  to  us  in  these  modern  cities  is  the  Saturday- 
morning  service  in  an  unreformed  Jewish  synagogue,  some  of  the  observances 
of  which  date  back  beyond  the  historic  period.  But  there  is  nothing  in  it  older 
than  the  sentiment  expressed  by  the  men  when  they  thank  God  for  his  good- 


SlCTTLlNG  THE  Ol)D  TiilOK.  (LoUCloil,  1778/) 


ness  in  not  making  them  women.  Only  men  are  admitted  to  the  synagogue  as 
equal  worshipers,  the  women  being  consigned  to  the  gallery,  spectators  of  their 
husbands’  devotion.  The  old  Jewish  liturgy  does  not  recognize  their  presence. 

Older  than  the  Jewish  liturgy  are  the  sacred  books  of  the  Hindoos.  The 
famous  passage  of  the  “Padma  Parana,”  translated  by  the  Abbe  Dubois,f  has 

* From  Wiij^ht’s  “Caricature  History  of  the  Georges,”  p.  256. 

t “ Description  of  the  Character,  Manners,  and  Customs  of  the  People  of  India,  ’ vol.  i.,  p.  316, 
by  J.  A.  Dubois,  London,  1817. 


CARICATURES  OF  WOMEN  AND  MATRIMONY. 


175 


been  part  of  the  domestic  code  of  the  Hindoos  for  thousands  of  years.  Ac- 
cording to  the  Hindoo  lawgiver,  a woman  has  no  god  on  earth  but  her  hus- 
band, and  no  religion  except  to  gratify,  obey,  and  serve  him.  Let  her  husband 
be  crooked,  old,  infirm,  offensive ; let  him  be  irascible,  irregular,  a drunkard, 
a gambler,  a debauchee ; let  him  be  reckless  of  his  domestic  affairs,  as  if  pos- 
sessed by  a devil;  though  he  live  in  the  world  without  honor;  though  he  be 
deaf  or  blind,  and  wholly  weighed  down  by  crime  and  infirmity — still  shall  his 
wife  regard  him  as  her  god.  With  all  her  might  shall  she  serve  him,  in  all 
things  obey  him,  see  no  defects  in  his  character,  and  give  him  no  cause  of  un- 
easiness. N'ay,  more:  in  every  stage  of  her  existence  woman  lives  but  to  obey 
— at  first  her  parents,  next  her  husband  and  his  parents,  and  in  her  old  age  she 
must  be  ruled  by  her  children.  Never  during  her  whole  life  can  she  be  under 
her  own  control. 

These  are  the  general  principles  upon  which  the  life  of  women  in  India  is 
to  be  conducted.  The  Hindoo  writer  was  considerate  enough  to  add  a few 
particulars : “ If  her  husband  laughs,  she  ought  to  laugh ; if  he  weeps,  she 
ought  to  weep  ; if  he  is  disposed  to  speak,  she  ought  not  to  join  in  the  conver- 
sation. Thus  is  the  goodness  of  her  nature  displayed.  What  woman  would  eat 
till  her  husband  has  first  had  his  fill  ? If  he  abstains,  she  will  surely  fast  also ; 
if  he  is  sad,  will  she  not  be  sorrowful?  and  if  he  is  gay,  Avill  she  not  leap  for 
joy?  In  the  absence  of  her  husband  her  raiment  will  be  mean.”  Such  has 
been  the  conception  of  woman’s  duty  to  man  by  all  the  half- developed  races 
from  time  immemorial,  and  such  to  this  day  are  the  tacit  demand  and  expecta- 
tion of  the  brutalized  males  of  the  more  advanced  races.  Gavarni,  married, 
would  have  been  content  with  no  subservience  much  short  of  that. 

Happily,  nature  has  given  to  woman  the  means  of  a fell  revenge,  for  she 
usually  holds  the  peace  of  the  household  and  the  happiness  of  all  its  members 
in  her  hands.  The  satirical  works  that  come  to  us  from  the  Oriental  lands 
teem  with  evidence  that  women  have  always  known  how  to  get  a fair  share  of 
domestic  authority.  If  they  are  slaves,  they  have  ever  been  adepts  in  the  arts 
and  devices  of  slaves.  The  very  squaws  of  our  Indians  often  contrive  to  rule 
their  brawny  lords.  Is  not  the  whole  history  of  the  war  between  the  sexes  in- 
cluded in  the  little  story  of  the  manner  in  which  Pocahontas  was  entrapped  on 
board  a British  vessel  lying  in  the  James  River  two  hundred  and  fifty  years 
ago?  The  captain  had  promised  to  the  aunt  of  this  dusky  princess  the  gift  of 
a copper  kettle  if  she  would  bring  her  niece  to  the  ship ; and  accordingly  one 
afternoon,  when  she  found  herself  on  the  river -bank  with  her  husband  and 
Pocahontas,  she  was  suddenly  seized  with  a longing  to  go  on  board,  saying  that 
this  was  the  third  time  the  ship  had  been  in  their  river,  and  yet  she  had  never 
visited  it.  Her  grumpy  old  husband  refusing,  she  began  to  ery^  and  then, 
Pocahontas  joining  her  entreaties,  of  course  the  old  man  liad  to  unfasten  his 
canoe  and  paddle  them  off  to  the  vessel.  This  model  couple  returned  to  the 
shore  poorer  by  a niece  of  uncertain  character,  and  richer  by  the  inestimable 


176 


CARICxVTURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


treasure  of  a copper  kettle.  What  fine  lady  could  have  managed  this  delicate 
affair  better?  Is  it  not  thus  that  tickets,  trinkets,  and  dresses  are  won  every 
day  in  the  cities  of  the  modern  world  ? 

An  attentive  study  of  the  Greek  and  Roman  literatures  furnishes  many 
illustrations  of  the  remark  just  made,  that  men  who  degrade  women  deride 
them.  Among  the  Greeks,  who  kept  women  in  subjection  and  seclusion,  and 
gave  them  no  freedom  of  choice  in  matters  of  dearest  concern  to  them,  the 
foibles  of  the  sex  were  treated  very  much  as  they  now  are  by  the  dissolute 
caricaturists  of  Paris.  Aristophanes’s  mode  of  representing  the  women  of 

Athens  is  eminently  Ga- 
varnian ; and  nothing  was 
more  natural  than  that  an 
Aristophanes  should  come 
after  an  Anacreon.  The 
lyric  poet  depicts  women 
as  objects  of  desire,  supe- 
rior in  alluring  charm  even 
to  wine,  rosy  wine ; and 
Aristophanes  delights  to 
exhibit  the  women’s  apart- 
ment of  an  Athenian  house 
as  a riotous  and  sensual- 
ized harem.  How  many 
expressions  of  utter  dis- 
trust and  dislike  of  women 
occur  in  the  Greek  poets ! 

“Tor  this,  and  only  this,  I’ll  trust 
a woman. 

That  if  you  take  life  from  her 
she  will  die; 

And,  being  dead,  will  come  to 
life  no  more. 

In  all  things  else  I am  an  infi- 
del.” 


“ Who  was  that  gentleman  that  just  went  out?” 

“ Why,  didn’t  he  see  you,  after  all  ? He  called  on  business,  and  has 
been  waiting  for  you  these  two  hours.  He  leaves  town  this  evening. 
But  how  warm  you  are,  dear !”— Gavarni,  Fourberies  de  Femmes, 
Paris,  1846. 

the  gods  for  tormenting  Prometheus,  though  his 
spark  of  fire. 


Thus  Antiphanes,  who 
died  twenty -two  hundred 
years  before  Gavarni  was 
born.  Menander  justifies 
crime  was  only  stealing  a 


“ But,  O ye  gods,  how  infinite  the  mischief! 
That  little  spark  gave  being  to  a woman. 
And  let  in  a new  race  of  plagues  to  curse  us. 


CARICATURES  OF  WOMEN  AND  MATRIMONY. 


177 


The  well-known  epigram  of  Palladas  upon  marriage  expresses  a tliouglit 
which  has  been  uttered  by  satirists  in  every  form  of  which  language  is  capable : 

“ In  marriage  are  two  happy  things  allowed — 

A wife  in  wedding  garb  and  in  her  shroud. 

Who,  then,  dares  say  that  state  can  be  accurst 
Where  the  last  day’s  as  happy  as  the  first  ?” 

Many  others  will  occur  to  the  reader  who  is  familiar  with  the  lighter  utter- 
ances of  the  ancients.  But  in  Greece,  as  in  China,  India,  and  Japan,  and  wher- 
ever else  men  and  women 
have  been  joined  in  wed- 
lock, there  have  been  mar- 
riages in  which  husband 
and  wife  have  lived  on 
terms  nobler  than  those 
contemplated  by  the  law 
or  demanded  by  usage. 

Where  could  we  find  a 
j lister  view  of  the  duties 
of  husband  and  wife  than 
in  that  passage  of  Xeno- 
phon’s dialogue  on  Econ- 
omy where  Ischomachus 
tells  Socrates  how  he  had 
taken  his  young  wife  into 
his  confidence,  and  come  to 
a clear  understanding  with 
her  as  to  the  share  each 
should  take  in  carrying  on 
the  household  ? Goethe 
must  have  had  this  pas- 
sage in  his  mind  when  he 
wrote  the  fine  tribute  to 
the  dignity  of  housekeep- 
ing in  “Wilhelm  Meister.” 

Ischomachus  had  married 
a girl  of  fifteen,  who  came 
to  him  as  wives  in  Greece 
usually  came  to  their  hus- 
bands— an  absolute  stranger  to  him.  He  had  to  get  acquainted  with  her  after 
marriage,  as,  indeed,  he  says,  “When  we  were  well  enough  acquainted,  and 
were  so  familiar  that  we  began  to  converse  freely  with  one  another,  I asked 
her  why  she  thought  I had  taken  her  for  my  wife.”  Much  is  revealed  in  that 
sentence.  He  tells  her  that,  being  married,  they  are  now  to  have  all  things  in 

12 


She.  “Now,  understand  me.  To-morrow  morning  he  will  ask  yon 
to  dinner.  If  he  has  his  umbrella  with  him,  it  will  mean  that  he  has 
not  got  his  stall  at  the  theatre.  In  that  case,  don’t  accept.  If  he  has 
no  umbrella,  come  to  dinner.” 

He.  “But  (you  know  we  must  think  of  every  thing)  suppose  it 
should  rain  to-morrow  morning?” 

She.  “If  it  rains,  he  will  get  wet — that’s  all.  If  I don’t  want  him 
to  have  an  umbrella,  he  won’t  have  one.  How  silly  you  are Ga- 
VARNi,  Fourberies  de  Femmes,  Paris,  1846. 


1V8 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


common,  and  eacli  should  only  strive  to  enhance  the  good  of  the  household. 
She  stares  with  wonder.  Her  mother  had  told  her  that  her  fortune  would  be 
wholly  her  husband’s,  and  all  that  she  had  to  do  was  to  live  virtuously  and  so- 
berly. Ischomachus  assents,  but  he  proceeds  to  show  her  that,  in  the  nature 
of  things,  husband  and  wife  must  be  equal  co-operators,  he  getting  the  money, 
she  administering  it;  he  fighting  the  battle  of  life  out-of-doors,  she  within 
the  house.  At  great  length  this  model  husband  illustrates  his  point,  and  en- 
tirely in  the  spirit  of  the  noble  passage  in  Goethe.  She  catches  the  idea  at 
length.  “ It  will  be  of  little  avail,”  she  says,  “ my  keeping  at  home  unless  you 
send  such  provisions  as  are  necessary.”  “ True,”  he  replies,  “ and  of  very  little 
use  ,my  providing  would  be  if  there  were  no  one  at  home  to  take  care  of  what 
I send ; it  would  be  pouring  water  into  a sieve.” 

This  fine  presentation  of  household  economy,  like  that  of  the  German  poet, 
is,  unhappily,  only  a dialogue  of  fiction.  It  was  merely  Xenophon’s  conception 
of  the  manner  in  which  a philosopher  of  prodigious  wisdom  might  deal  with  a 
girl  of  fifteen,  whom  he  had  married  without  having  enjoyed  the  pleasure  of  a 
previous  acquaintance  with  her.  Doubtless  there  was  here  and  there  in  an- 
cient Greece  a couple  who  succeeded  in  approximating  Xenophon’s  ideal. 

Among  the  Romans  women  began  to  acquire  those  legal  “ rights”  to  which 
they  owe  whatever  advance  they  have  ever  made  toward  a just  equality  with 
men.  It  was  Roman  law  that  lifted  a wife  from  the  condition  of  a cherished 
slave  to  a status  something  higher  than  that  of  daughter.  But  there  was  still 
one  fatal  defect  in  her  position — her  husband  could  divorce  her,  but  she  could 
not  divorce  him.  Cicero,  the  flower  of  Roman  culture,  put  away  the  wife  of 
his  youth  after  living  with  her  thirty  years,  and  no  remonstrance  on  her  part 
would  have  availed  against  his  decision.  But  a Roman  wife  had  rights.  She 
could  not  be  deprived  of  her  property,  and  the  law  threw  round  her  and  her 
children  a system  of  safeguards  which  gave  her  a position  and  an  influence  not 
unlike  those  of  the  “ lady  of  the  house  ” at  the  present  time.  Instead  of  being 
secluded  in  a kind  of  harem,  as  among  the  Greeks,  she  came  forward  to  receive 
her  husband’s  guests,  shared  some  of  their  festivities,  governed  the  household, 
superintended  the  education  of  her  children,  and  enjoyed  her  ample  share  of 
the  honor  which  he  inherited  or  won.  “Where  you  are  Caius,  I am  Caia,”  she 
modestly  said,  as  she  entered  for  the  first  time  her  husband’s  abode.  He  was 
paterfamilias,  she  materfamilias ; and  the  rooms  assigned  to  her  peculiar  use 
were,  as  with  us,  the  best  in  the  house. 

To  the  Roman  law  women  are  infinitely  indebted.  Among  the  few  hun- 
dreds of  families  who  did  actually  share  the  civilization  of  Cicero,  the  Plinys, 
and  Marcus  Aurelius,  the  position  of  a Roman  matron  was  one  of  high  dignity 
and  influence,  and  accordingly  the  general  tone  of  the  best  Roman  literature 
toward  woman  is  such  as  does  honor  to  both  sexes.  She  was  even  instructed 
in  that  literature.  In  such  a family  as  that  of  Cicero,  the  daughter  would  usu- 
ally have  the  same  tutors  as  the  son,  and  the  wife  of  such  a man  would  famil- 


CARICATURES  OF  WOMEN  AND  MATRIMONY. 


179 


iarly  use  her  husband’s  library.  Juvenal,  that  peerless  re  viler  of  women,  the 
Gavarni  of  poets,  deploresvthe  fact: 

“ But  of  all  plagues  the  greatest  is  untold — 

The  book-learned  wife  in  Greek  and  Latin  bold ; 

The  critic  dame  who  at  her  table  sits, 

Homer  and  Virgil  quotes,  and  weighs  their  wits, 

And  pities  Dido’s  agonizing  fits. 

She  has  so  far  the  ascendant  of  the  board. 

The  prating  pedant  puts  not  in  one  word ; 

The  man  of  law  is  nonplused  in  his  suit ; 

Nay,  every  other  female  tongue  is  mute.” 

The  whole  of  this  sixth  satire  of  Juvenal,  in  which  the  Gavarnian  litera- 
ture of  all  nations  was  an- 
ticipated and  exhausted,  is 
a tribute  to  woman’s  so- 
cial importance  in  Rome. 

No  Greek  would  have  con- 
sidered woman  worthy  of 
so  elaborate  an  effort.  And 
as  in  Athens,  Anacreon,  the 
poet  of  sensual  love,  was 
naturally  followed  by  Aris- 
nes,  a satirist  of  wom- 
en,so, in  Rome,  Ovid’s  ^‘Art 
of  Love”  preceded  and  will 
forever  explain  Juvenal’s 
sixth  satire.  All  illustrates 
the  truth  that  sensualized 
men  necessarily  undervalue 
and  laugh  at  women.  In 
all  probability,  Juvenal’s 
satire  was  a caricature  as 
gross  and  groundless  as  the 

. ^ • rpi  “ Madame,  your  cousiu  Betty  wishes  to  know  if  you  can  receive  her.” 

pictures  01  Gavarni.  ihe  “impossible!  Tell  her  that  to-day  I receive." — Les  Tribulations  de  la 

instinct  of  the  satirist  is  Elegante, par  Oirin,  Paris 

first  to  select  for  treatment  the  exceptional  instance  of  folly,  and  tlien  to  exag- 
gerate that  exceptional  instance  to  the  uttermost.  Unhappily  many  readers 
are  only  too  much  inclined  to  accept  this  exaggerated  exception  as  if  it  were  a 
representative  fact.  There  is  a passage  in  Terence  in  which  he  expresses  the 
feeling  of  most  men  who  have  been  plagued,  justly  or  unjustly,  by  a Avoman  : 

“Not  one  but  bas  the  sex  so  strong  within  her, 

She  differs  nothing  from  the  rest.  Step-mothers 
All  hate  their  step-daughters,  and  every  wife 


180 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


Studies  alike  to  contradict  her  husband, 

The  same  perverseness  running  through  them  all.” 

The  acute  reader,  on  turning  to  the  play  of  the  “Mother-in-law,”  from 
which  these  lines  are  taken,  will  not  be  surprised  to  learn  that  the  women  in 
the  comedy  are  in  the  right,  and  the  men  grossly  in  fault. 

The  literature  of  the  Middle  Ages  tells  the  same  story.  The  popular  tales 
of  that  period  exhibit  women  as  equally  seductive  and  malevolent,  silly,  vain, 
not  to  be  trusted,  enchanting  to  the  lover,  a torment  to  the  husband.  Carica- 
tures of  women  and  their  extravagances  in  costume  and  behavior  occur  in 
manuscripts  as  far  back  as  a.d.  1150,  and  those  extravagances  may  serve  to 
console  men  of  the  present  time  by  their  enormity.  Many  specimens  could 
be  given,  but  they  are  generally  too  formless  or  extravagant  to  be  interesting. 

There  are  also  many  rude  pictures 
from  those  centuries  which  aimed 
to  satirize  the  more  active  foibles 
of  the  sex.  One  of  these  exhibits 
a Avife  belaboring  her  husband  Avith 
a broom,  another  pounding  hers 
Avith  a ladle,  another  with  a more 
terrible  instrument,  her  Avithering 
tongue,  and  another  Avith  the  surest 
Aveapon  in  all  the  female  armory — 
tears.  In  the  Rouen  Cathedral 
there  are  a pair  of  carvings,  one  rep- 
resenting a fierce  struggle  between 
husband  and  wife  for  the  posses- 
sion of  a garment  the  Avearing  of 
Avhich  is  supposed  to  be  a sign  of 
mastery,  and  the  other  exhibiting 
the  victorious  Avife  in  the  act  of 
putting  that  garment  on.  On  the  jiortal  of  a church  at  Ploermel,  in  France, 
there  is  a Avell-cut  representation  of  a young  girl  leading  an  elderly  man  by 
the  nose.  More  violent  contests  are  frequently  portrayed,  and  even  fierce  bat- 
tles Avith  belloAvs  and  pokers,  stirring  incidents  in  the  “ eternal  war  between 
man  and  Avoman.” 

The  gentle  German  priest  Avho  Avrote  the  moral  ditties  of  the  “ Ship  of 
Fools”  ought  not  to  have  known  much  of  the  tribulations  of  husbands;  but  in 
his  poem  on  the  “Wrath  and  great  LeAA’^dnes  of  Wymen,”  he  becomes  a kind 
of  frantic  Caudle,  and  lays  about  him  Avith  remarkable  vigor.  He  calls  upon 
the  “ Kinge  most  glorious  of  heaven  and  erth  ” to  deliver  mankind  from  the 
venomous  and  cruel  tongues  of  froAvard  Avomen.  One  chiding  AVoman,  he  ob- 
serves, “ niaketh  greater  yell  than  a hundred  magpies  in  one  cage;”  and  let  her 
husband  do  what  he  will,  he  can  not  quiet  her  till  “she  hath  chid  her  fill.”  No 


A Scene  of  Conjugal  Life.  ^Daumier,  Paris,  1846.) 


CARICATURES  OF  WOMEN  AND  MATRIMONY. 


181 


beast  on  earth  is  so  capable  of  furious  hate — not  the  bear,  nor  the  wolf,  nor  the 
lion,  nor  the  lioness ; no,  nor  the  cruel  tigress  robbed  of  her  whelps,  rushing 
wildly  about,  tearing  and  gnawing  stock  and  tree. 

“A  wrathfall  woman  is  yet  more  mad  than  she. 

Cruell  Medea  doth  us  example  shewe 
Of  woman’s  furour,  great  wrath  and  cruelty  ; 

Which  her  owne  children  dyd  all  to  pecis  hewe.” 

This  poet,  usually  so  moderate  and  mild  in  his  satire  of  human  folly,  is 
transported  with  rage  in  contemplating  the  faults  of  women,  and  holds  them 
up  to  the  abhorrence  of  his  readers.  A woman,  he  remarks,  can  wallow  in 
wicked  delights,  and  then,  giving  her  mouth  a hurried  wipe^  come  forward 
with  tranquil  mind  and  an  air  of  child-like  innocence,  sweetly  protesting  that 
she  has  done  nothing  wrong.  The  most  virulent  woman-hater  that  was  ever 
jilted  or  rejected  could  not  go  beyond  the  bachelor  priest  who  penned  this  in- 
furiate diatribe  upon  the  sex. 


A Splendid  Spread.  (Cruikshauk,  1850.) 


ISTor  was  Erasmus’s  estimate  of  women  more  favorable  than  Brandt’s, 
though  he  expresses  it  more  lightly  and  gayly,  as  his  manner  was.  And  curi- 
ous it  is  to  note  that  the  foibles  which  he  selects  for  animadversion  are  pre- 
cisely those  which  form  the  staple  of  satire  against  women  at  the  present  time. 
In  one  of  his  Colloquies  he  describes  the  “Assembly  of  Women,  or  the  Female 
Parliament,”  and  reports  at  length  the  speech  of  one  of  the  principal  members, 
the  wise  Cornelia.  This  eloquent  lady  heartily  berates  the  wives  of  tradesmen 
for  presuming  to  copy  the  fashions  of  the  rich  and  noble.  Would  any  one  be- 
lieve that  the  following  sentences  were  written  nearly  four  hundred  years  ago? 

“’Tis  almost  impossible  by  the  outside,”  says  Cornelia  to  her  parliament  of 
fine  ladies,  “ to  know  a duchess  from  a kitchen-wench.  All  the  ancient  bounds 


182 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ARE 


of  modesty  have  been  so  impudently  transgressed,  that  every  one  wears  what 
apparel  seems  best  in  her  own  eyes.  At  church  and  at  the  play-house,  in  city 
and  country,  you  may  see  a thousand  women  of  indifferent  if  not  sordid  ex- 
traction swaggering  it  abroad  in  silks  and  velvets,  in  damask  and  brocard,  in 
gold  and  silver,  in  ermines  and  sable  tippets,  while  their  husbands  perhaps  are 
stitching  Grub-street  pamphlets  or  cobbling  shoes  at  home.  Their  fingers 
are  loaded  with  diamonds  and  rubies,  for  Turkey  stones  are  nowadays  de- 
spised even  by  chimney-sweepers’  wives.  It  was  thought  enough  for  your 
ordinary  women  in  the  last  age  that  they  were  allowed  the  mighty  privilege 
to  wear  a silk  girdle,  and  to  set  off  the  borders  of  their  woolen  petticoats  with 
an  edging  of  silk.  But  now  — and  I can  hardly  forbear  weeping  at  the 
thoughts  of  it — this  worshipful  custom  is  quite  out-of-doors.  If  your  tallow- 
chandlers’,  vintners’,  and  other  tradesmen’s  wives  flaunt  it  in  a chariot  and 
four,  what  shall  your  marchionesses  or  countesses  do,  I wonder?  And  if  a 
country  squire’s  spouse  will  have  a train  after  her  full  fifteen  ells  long,  pray 
what  shift  must  a princess  make  to  distinguish  herself  ? What  makes  this  ten 
times  worse  than  otherwise  it  would  be,  we  are  never  constant  to  one  dress, 
but  are  as  fickle  and  uncertain  as  weathercocks — or  the  men  that  preach  under 
them.  Formerly  our  head -tire  was  stretched  out  upon  wires  and  mounted 
upon  barbers’  poles,  women  of  condition  thinking  to  distinguish  themselves 
from  the  ordinary  sort  by  this  dress.  Nay,  to  make  the  difference  still  more 
visible,  they  wore  caps  of  ermine  powdered.  But  they  were  mistaken  in  their 
politics,  for  the  cits  soon  got  them.  Then  they  trumpt  up  another  mode,  and 
black  quoiss  came  into  play.  But  the  ladies  within  Ludgate  not  only  aped 
them  in  this  fashion,  but  added  thereto  a gold  embroidery  and  jewels.  For- 
merly the  court  dames  took  a great  deal  of  pains  in  combing  up  their  hair  from 
their  foreheads  and  temples  to  make  a tower;  but  they  were  soon  weary  of 
that,  for  it  was  not  long  before  this  fashion  too  was  got  into  Cheapside.  Aft- 
er this  they  let  their  hair  fall  loose  about  their  foreheads ; but  the  city  gossips 
soon  followed  them  in  that.” 

And  this  game,  we  may  add,  has  been  kept  up  from  that  day  to  this;  nor 
does  either  party  yet  show  any  inclination  to  retire  from  the  contest. 

Erasmus  was,  indeed,  an  unmerciful  satirist  of  women.  In  his  Praise  of 
Folly”  he  returns  to  the  charge  again  and  again.  ‘‘That  which  made  Plato 
doubt  under  what  genus  to  rank  woman,  whether  among  brutes  or  rational 
creatures,  was  only  meant  to  denote  the  extreme  stupidness  and  folly  of  that 
sex,  a sex  so  unalterably  simple,  that  for  any  of  them  to  thrust  forward  and 
reach  at  the  name  of  wise  is  but  to  make  themselves  the  more  remarkable 
fools,  such  an  endeavor  being  but  a swimming  against  the  stream,  nay,  the 
turning  the  course  of  nature,  the  bare  attempting  whereof  is  as  extravagant  as 
the  effecting  of  it  is  impossible : for  as  it  is  a trite  proverb.  That  an  ape  will 
he  an  ape,  though  claA  in  purple ; so  a woman  will  be  a woman,  ^.  6.,  a fool, 
whatever  disguise  she  takes  up.”  And  again : “ Good  God ! what  frequent 


CARICATURES  OF  WOMEN  AND  MATRIMONY. 


183 


divorces,  or  worse  mischief,  would  oft  sadly  happen,  except  man  and  wife  were 
so  discreet  as  to  pass  over  light  occasions  of  quarrel  with  laughing,  jesting, 
dissembling,  and  such  like  playing  the  fool?  Nay,  how  few  matches  would  go 
forward,  if  the  hasty  lover  did  but  first  know  how  many  little  tricks  of  lust 
and  wantonness  (and  perhaps  more 
gross  failings)  his  coy  and  seemingly 
bashful  mistress  had  oft  before  been 
guilty  of?  And  how  fewer  marriages, 
when  consummated,  would  continue 
happy,  if  the  husband  were  not  either 
sottishly  insensible  of,  or  did  not  pur- 
posely wink  at  and  pass  over,  the  light- 
ness and  forwardness  of  his  good-nat- 
ured wife?” 

The  ill  opinion  entertained  of  wom- 
en by  men  during  the  ages  of  darkness 
and  superstition  found  expression  in 
laws  as  well  as  in  literature.  The  age 
of  chivalry!  Investigators  who  have 
studied  that  vaunted  period  in  the 
court  records  and  law-books  tell  us 
that  respect  for  women  is  a thing  of 
which  those  records  show  no  trace. 

In  the  age  of  chivalry  the  widow  and 
the  fatherless  were  regarded  by  lords, 
knights,  and  parsons  ” as  legitimate 
objects  of  plunder ; and  woe  to  the 
widow  who  prosecuted  the  murderers 
of  her  husband  or  the  ravagers  of  her 
estate  1 The  homage  which  the  law 
paid  to  women  consisted  in  burning 
them  alive  for  offenses  which  brought 
upon  men  the  painless  death  of  hang- 
ing. We  moderns  read  with  puzzled 
incredulity  such  a story  as  that  of  Go- 
diva,  doubtful  if  so  vast  an  outrage 
could  ever  have  been  committed  ina.  u -. 

mg  as  mnch  moisture  as  might  bedew  a primrose.”— 
community  not  entirely  savage.  Let  Mrs.  Trolrope,  Domestic  Manners  of  the  Americana, 
, , . 1 . 1 r r 1 vol.  ii.,  p.  135.  1830. 

the  reader  immerse  himseli  for  only  a 

few  months  in  the  material  of  which  the  history  of  the  Middle  Ages  must  be 
composed,  if  it  shall  ever  be  truly  written,  and  the  tale  of  Godiva  will  seem 
credible  and  natural.  She  was  her  lord’s  chattel;  and  probably  the  people 
of  her  day  who  heard  the  story  commended  him  for  lightening  the  burdens  of 


American  Lat>y  walking  in  the  Snow. 

‘*I  have  often  shivered  at  seeing  a young  beauty 
picking  her  way  through  the  snow  with  a pale  rose- 
colored  bonnet  set  on  the  very  top  of  her  head.  They 
never  wear  muffs  or  boots,  even  when  they  have  to 
step  to  their  sleighs  over  ice  and  snow.  They  walk 
in  the  middle  of  winter  with  their  poor  little  toes 
pinched  into  a miniature  slipper,  incapable  of  exclud- 


184 


CARICATUKE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


Coventry  on  such  easy  terms,  and  saw  no  great  hardship  in  the  task  assigned 
to  her. 

People  read  with  surprise  of  Thomas  Jefferson’s  antipathy  to  the  poems 
and  novels  of  Sir  Walter  Scott.  He  objected  to  them  because  they  gave  a 
view  of  the  past  ages  utterly  at  variance  with  the  tuuth  as  revealed  in  the 
authentic  records,  which  he  had  studied  from  his  youth  up. 

Coming  down  to  recent  times,  we  still  find  the  current  anecdote  and  prov- 
erb in  all  lands  bearing  hardly  upon  the  sex.  A few  kindly  and  appreciative 
sayings  pass  current  in  Scotland ; and  the  literatures  of  Germany,  England, 
and  the  United  States  teem  with  the  noblest  and  tenderest  homage  to  the  ex- 


'■‘■'•My  dear  Baron,  I am  in  the  most  pressing  7ieed  of  Jive  hundred  franc  P Must  I put  an  s to  franc?” 
“No.  In  the  circumstances  it  is  better  not.  It  will  prove  to  the  Baron  that,  for  the  moment,  you  really 
are  destitute  of  every  thing — even  of  orthography.” — Ed.  de  Beaumont,  Paris,  1860. 


cellence  of  women.  But  most  of  these  belong  to  the  literature  of  this  century, 
and  bear  the  names  of  men  who  may  be  said  to  have  created  the  moral  feeling 
of  the  present  moment.  It  is  interesting  to  notice  that  in  one  of  our  latest  and 
best  dictionaries  of  quotation,  that  of  Mr.  M.  M.  Ballou,  of  Boston,  there  are 
one  hundred  and  eleven  short  passages  relating  to  women,  of  which  only  one  is 
dishonorable  to  them,  and  that  dates  back  a century  and  a half,  to  the  halcyon 
day  of  the  British  libertine — “ Every  woman  is  at  heart  a rake. — Pope.”  So 
thought  all  the  dissolute  men  of  Pope’s  circle,  as  we  know  from  their  conversa- 
tion and  letters.  So  thought  the  Due  de  Rochefoucauld,  who  said,  “There  are 
few  virtuous  women  who  are  not  weary  of  their  profession;”  and  “Most  vir- 
tuous women,  like  concealed  treasures,  are  secure  because  nobody  seeks  after 


CARICATURES  OF  WOMEN  AND  MATRIMONY. 


185 


them.”  So  thought  Chesterfield,  who  told  his  hopeful  son  that  he  could  never 
go  wrong  in  flattering  a 
woman,  for  women  were 
foolish  and  frail  without 
exception  : “ I never  knew 
one  in  my  life  who  had 
good  sense,  or  who  reason- 
ed and  acted  consequen- 
tially for  four -and -twenty 
hours  together.”  And  so 
must  think  every  man  who 
lived  as  men  of  fashion 
then  lived.  ‘‘  If  I dwelt 
in  a hospital,”  said  Dr. 

Franklin  once,  “I  might 
come  to  think  all  mankind 
diseased.” 

But  a man  need  not  be 

a fine  gentleman  nor  a roue, 

to  think  ill  of  womankind.  ' “ Madame,  I have  the  honor— ” 

“ Sir,  he  good  enough  to  come  round  in  front  and  speak  to  me.” 
ITe  needs  only  to  be  com-  “Madame,  I really  haven’t  the  time.  I must  be  off  in  five  minutes.” 

monplace;  and  hence  it  is  -Cham, p«m, iS50. 

that  the  homely  proverbs  of  all  time  bear  so  hardly  upon  women.  The  native 
land  of  the  modern  proverb  is  Spain,  as  we  might  guess  from  Sancho  Panza’s 
exhaustless  repertory ; and  most  of  those  homely  disparaging  sentences  con- 
cerning women  that  pass  cur- 
rent in  all  lands  appear  to 
have  originated  there.  What 
Spain  has  left  unsaid  upon 
women’s  foibles,  Italy  has 
supplied.  Most  of  the  fol- 
lowing proverbs  are  traceable 
to  one  of  the  two  peninsulas 
of  Southern  Europe : “ He 
that  takes  an  eel  by  the  tail 
or  a woman  by  her  word 
may  say  he  holds  nothing.” 
“There  is  one  bad  wife  in 
Spain,  and  every  man  thinks 
he  has  her.”  “ He  that  loses 
his  wife  and  a farthing  hath 
great  loss  of  his  farthing.” 
“ If  the  mother  had  never 


“ Where  are  the  diamonds  exhibited  ?” 

“ I haven’t  the  least  idea ; but  I let  myself  be  guided  by  my  wife. 
V/ omen  get  at  such  things  by  instinct.”— Guam,  Paris,  1868. 


186 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


been  in  the  oven,  she  would  not  have  looked  for  her  daughter  there.”  “ He 
that  marries  a widow  and  three  children  marries  four  thieves.”  “He  that 
tells  his  wife  news  is  but  newly  married.”  “A  dead  wife’s  the  best  goods 
in  a man’s  house.”  “A  man  of  straw  is  worth  a woman  of  gold.”  “A  woman 
conceals  what  she  knows  not.”  “As  great  a pity  to  see  a woman  weep  as  to 
see  a goose  go  barefoot.”  “A  woman’s  mind  and  winter’s  wind  change  oft.” 
“There  is  no  mischief  in  the  world  done  but  a woman  is  always  one.”  “Com- 
mend a wedded  life,  but  keep  thyself  a bachelor.”  “,  Where  there  are  women 
and  geese,  there  wants  no  noise.”  “ Neither  women  nor  linen  by  candle-light.” 
“ Glasses  and  lasses  are  brittle  ware.”  “ Two  daughters  and  a back-door  are 


Evening  Scene  in  the  Parlok  of  an  American  BoARuiNG-HuubE. 


“Ladies  who  have  uo  engagements  (in  the  evening)  either  mount  again  to  the  solitude  of  tlieir  chamber, 
or  remain  in  the  common  sitting-room,  in  a society  cemented  by  no  tie,  endeared  by  no  connection,  which 
choice  did  not  bring  together,  and  which  the  slightest  motive  would  break  asunder.  I remarked  that  the 
gentlemen  were  generally  obliged  to  go  out  every  evening  on  business ; and,  I confess,  the  arrangement  did 
not  surprise  me.” — Mrs.  Troelope,  Domestic  Man7iers  of  the  Amei'icans,  vol.  ii.,  p.  111.  1S30. 

three  thieves.”  “Women  commend  a modest  man,  but  like  him  not.”  “Wom- 
en in  mischief  are  wiser  than  men.”  “Women  laugh  when  they  can  and  weep 
when  they  will.”  “Women,  priests,  and  poultry  never  have  enough.” 

Among  the  simple  people  of  Iceland  similar  proverbs  pass  current:  “Praise 
the  fineness  of  the  day  when  it  is  ended;  praise  a woman  when  she  is  bui-ied; 
praise  a maiden  when  she  is  married.”  “Trust  not  to  the  words  of  a girl; 
neither  to  those  which  a woman  utters,  for  their  hearts  have  been  made  like 
the  wheel  that  turns  round;  levity  was  put  into  their  bosoms.” 

Among  the  few  broadsides  of  Elizabeth’s  reign  preserved  in  the  British 
Museum  there  is  one  which  is  conceived  in  perfect  harmony  with  these  prov- 
erbs. It  presents  eight  scenes,  in  all  of  which  women  figure  disadvantageous- 


CARICATURES  OF  WOMEN  AND  MATRIMONY. 


187 


ly.  There  is  a child-bed  scene,  in  which  the  mother  lies  in  state,  most  prepos- 
terously dressed  and  adorned,  while  a dozen  other  Avomen  are  idling  and  gos- 
siping about  the  room.  Women  are  exhibited  also  at  the  market,  at  the  bake- 
house, at  the  ale-house,  at  the  river  washing  clothes,  at  church,  at  the  bath,  at 
the  public  well;  but  always  chattering,  gossiping,  idling,  unless  they  are  fight- 
ing or  flirting.  Another  caricature  in  the  same  collection,  dated  1620,  the  year 
of  the  3Iayfloioer  and  Plymouth  Rock,  contains  seven  scenes  illustrative  of  the 
lines  following : 

“Who  mai’ieth  a Wife  upon  a Moneday, 

If  she  will  not  be  good  upon  a Twesday, 

Lett  him  go  to  y®  wood  upon  a Wensday, 

And  cutt  him  a cudgell  upon  the  Thursday, 

And  pay  her  soundly  upon  a Eryday ; 

And  she  mend  not,  y®  divil  take  her  a Saterday, 

That  he  may  eat  his  meat  in  peace  on  the  Sunday.” 

To  complete  the  record  of  man’s  ridicule  of  the  sex  to  which  he  owes  his 
happiness,  I add  the  pictures  given  in  this  chapter,  which  bring  that  record 
down  to  date.  They  tell  their  own  story.  The  innocent  fun  of  English  Cruik- 
shank  and  Leech  contrasts  agreeably  with  the  subtle  depravity  indicated  by 
some  of  the  French  caricaturists,  particularly  by  Gavarni,  who  surpasses  all 
men  in  the  art  of  exaggerating  the  address  of  the  class  of  women  who  regard 
men  in  the  light  of  prey.  The  point  of  Gavarni’s  satire  usually  lies  in  the 
words  printed  underneath  his  pictures,  and  the  pictures  generally  consist  of 
the  two  figures  who  utter  those  words.  But  the  expression  which  he  contrives 
to  impart  to  his  figures  and  faces  by  a few  apparently  careless  lines  is  truly 
wonderful,  and  it  can  scarcely  be  transferred  to  another  surface.  He  excels  in 
the  expression  of  a figure  with  the  face  turned  away,  the  whole  effect  being 
given  by  the  outline  of  the  head  three-quarters  averted.  There  is  one  picture 
of  his,  given  on  the  following  page,  of  a woman  and  her  lover,  he  sitting  in  a 
chair  reading  with  his  hat  on^  indicating  the  extreme  of  familiarity,  she  stand- 
ing at  the  window  sewing,  and  keeping  an  eye  on  the  pavement  below.  He’s 
coming !”  she  says ; “ take  off  your  hat.”  In  the  attitude  of  the  woman  there 
is  a mingled  effect  of  tranquillity  and  vigilance  that  is  truly  remarkable.  In 
all  the  range  of  caricature  it  would  be  difficult  to  find  a better  specimen  of  the 
art  than  this,  or  a worse.  The  reader  may  be  curious  to  see  a few  more  of 
\\\QS,Q  fourheries  de  femmes^  as  evolved  from  the  brain  of  the  dissolute  Gavarni. 
It  is  almost  impossible  to  transfer  the  work  of  his  pencil,  but  here  are  a few 
of  his  verbal  elucidations: 

Under  a picture  of  a father  and  daughter  walking  arm-in-arm : ‘‘  How  did 
you  know,  papa,  that  I loved  M.  Leon  ?”  “ Because  you  always  spoke  of  M. 

Paul.” 

Two  young  ladies  in  confidential  conversation:  “When  I think  that  M. 
Coquardeau  is  going  to  be  my  husband,  I feel  sorry  for  Alexander.”  “And  I 
for  Coquardeau.” 


188 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


“ He’s  coming ! Take  off  your  hat !”— Gavakni,  Paris,  1846. 


Two  married  ladies  in  conversation:  ‘‘Yes,  my  dear,  my  husband  has  been 
guilty  of  bringing  that  creature  into  my  house  before  my  very  eyes,  when  he 
knows  that  the  only  man  I love  in  the  world  is  two  hundred  leagues  from 
here.” — “Men  are  contemptible”  {laches). 

Husband  writing  a note,  and  his  wife  standing  behind  him : 

“My  dear  Sir, — Caroline  begs  me  to  remind  you  of  a certain  duet,  of  which  she  is  extrava- 
gantly fond,  and  which  you  promised  to  give  her.  Pray  be  so  good  as  to  dine  with  her  to-day, 
and  bring  your  music  with  you.  For  my  part,  I shall  be  deprived  of  the  pleasure  of  hearing  you, 
for  I have  an  engagement  at  Versailles.  Pity  me,  my  dear  sir,  and  believe  me  always  your  af- 
fectionate COQUARDEAU.” 

A young  man  in  wild  excitement  reading  a letter : 

“On  receipt  of  this,  mount,  fly ; overtake  in  the  Avenue  de  Neuilly  a yellow  cab,  the  steps 
down,  gray  horse,  old  coachman,  108,  one  lantern  lighted ! Follow  it.  It  will  stop  at  the  side 
door  of  a house  at  Sablonville.  A man  and  a woman  will  get  out.  That  man — he  was  my  lover ! 
And  that  woman — she  is  yours!” 


CARICATURES  OF  WOMEN  AND  MATRLAIONY. 


189 


The  SoHOLASTio  Hen  and  her  Cjiiokens.  (Cruikshauk,  1846.) 

Miss  Thimblebee  loquitur.  “ Turn  your  heads  the  other  way,  my  dears,  for  here  are  two  horridly  hand- 
some officers  coming.” 


Lady  fainting,  and  a man  in  consternation  supporting  her  head : “ Clara, 
Clara!  dearest,  look  up!  Don’t!  Clara,  I say!  You  don’t  know  any  nice 
young  man  ! I am  an  ass,  with  my  stupid  jealousy.  And  you  shall  have  your 
velvet  shawl.  Come,  Clara  ! Now  then,  Clara, 

Lady  dropping  two  letters  into  the  post-office.  First  letter : 

“My  kind  Amedee, — This  evening,  toward  eight,  at  the  Red  Ball.  Mind,  now,  and  don’t 
keep  waiting  your  Clara.” 

Second  letter : 

“ My  Henry, — Well-beloved,  judge  of  my  despair — I have  a sore  throat  that  is  simply  fright- 
ful. It  will  be  impossible  for  me  to  go  out  this  evening.  They  even  talk  of  applying  twenty 
leeches.  Pity  a great  deal,  and  love  always,  your  Clara.” 

In  these  numberless  satires  upon  women,  executed  by  pen  and  pencil,  there 
is  a certain  portion  of  truth,  for,  indeed,  a woman  powerfully  organized  and 
fully  developed,  but  without  mental  culture  and  devoid  of  the  sentiment  of 
duty,  can  be  a creature  most  terrific.  If  the  possession  of  wealth  exempts  her 
from  labor,  there  are  four  ways  in  which  she  can  appease  the  ennpi  of  a barren 
mind  and  a torpid  conscience.  One  is  deep  play,  which  was,  until  within  sev- 
enty years,  the  resource  chiefly  relied  upon  by  women  of  fashion  for  killing  the 
hours  between  dinner  and  bed  ; one  is  social  display,  or  the  struggle  for  the 
leadership  of  a circle,  an  ambition  perhaps  more  pernicious  than  gambling ; an- 
other is  intrigues  of  love,  no  longer  permitted  in  the  more  advanced  countries, 
but  formerly  an  important  element  in  fashionable  life  everywhere;  finally, 
there  is  the  resource  of  excessive  and  ceaseless  devotion,  the  daily  mass,  the 
weekly  confession,  frequent  and  severe  fasting,  abject  slavery  to  the  ritual. 


190 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


Of  all  these,  the  one  last  named  is  probably  the  most  injurious,  since  it 
tends  to  bring  virtue  itself  into  contempt,  and  repels  the  young  from  all  seri- 
ous and  elevated  modes  of  living.  Accordingly,  in  studying  the  historic  fami- 
lies of  Europe,  we  frequently  find  that  the  devotee  and  the  debauchee  alter- 
nate, each  producing  the  other,  both  being  expressions  of  the  same  moral  and 
mental  defect.  But  whether  a mindless  woman  gambles,  dresses,  flirts,  oi* 
fasts,  she  is  a being  who  furnishes  the  satirist  with  legitimate  material. 

Equal  rights,  equal  education,  equal  chances  of  an  independent  career  — 
when  women  have  enjoyed  these  for  so  much  as  a single  century  in  any  coun- 
try, the  foibles  at  which  men  have  laughed  for  so  many  ages  will  probably  no 
longer  be  remarked,  for  they  are  either  the  follies  of  ignorance  or  the  vices  re- 
sulting from  a previous  condition  of  servitude.  Nor  will  men  of  right  feeling 
ever  regard  women  with  the  cold,  critical  eye  of  a Chesterfield  or  a Rochefou- 
cauld, but  rather  with  something  of  the  exalted  sentiment  which  caused  old 
Homer,  whenever  he  had  occasion  to  speak  of  a mother,  to  prefix  an  adjective 
usually  applicable  to  goddesses  and  queens,  which  we  can  translate  best,  per- 
haps, by  our  English  word  revered. 


AMONG  THE  CHINESE. 


191 


CHAPTER  XVI. 


AMONG  THE  CHINESE. 


E are  apt  to  think  of  the  Chinese  as  a grave  people,  unskilled  in  the 


lighter  arts  of  satire  and  caricature;  but,  according  to  that  amusing 
traveler,  M.  Hue,  they  are  the  French  of  Asia — “ a nation  of  cooks,  a nation  of 
actors” — singularly  fond  of  the  drama,  gifted  in  pasquinade,  addicted  to  bur- 
lesque, prolific  in  comic  ideas  and  satirical  devices.  M.  Hue  likens  the  Chinese 
Empire  to  an  immense  fair,  where  you  find  mingled  with  the  bustle  of  traffic 
all  kinds  of  shows,  mountebanks,  actors,  Cheap  Jacks,  thieves,  gamblers,  all 
competing  continually  and  with  vociferous  uproar  for  the  favor  of  the  crowd. 
‘‘There  are  theatres  everywhere;  the  great  towns  are  full  of  them;  and  the 
actors  play  night  and  day.”  When  the  British  officers  went  ashore,  in  the  ret- 
inue of  their  first  grand  embassy,  many  years  ago,  they  were  astonished  to  see 
Punch  in  all  his  glory  with  Judy,  dog,  and  devil,  just  as  they  had  last  seen  him 
on  Ascot  Heath,  except  that  he  summoned  his  audience  by  gong  and  triangle 
instead  of  pipes  and  drum.  The  Orient  knew  Punch  perhaps  ages  before  En- 
gland saw  him.  In  China  they  have  a Punch  conducted  by  a single  individ- 


Chinebe  Carioatcke  of  an  Engetsu  Foeaginq  Party.* 


* From  “The  Middle  Kingdom,”  vol.  ii,,  p.  177,  by  S.  W.  Williams,  New  York,  1871. 


192 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


ual,  who  is  enveloped  from  head  to  foot  in  a gown.  lie  carries  the  little  thea- 
tre on  his  head,  works  the  wires  with  liis  hands  under  the  gown,  executes  the 
dialogue  with  his  mouth  concealed  by  the  same  garment,  and  in  the  intervals 
of  performance  plays  on  two  instruments.  He  exhibits  the  theatre  reduced  to 
its  simplest  form,  the  work  of  the  company,  the  band,  the  manager,  treasurer, 
scene-shifter,  and  property-man  all  being  done  by  one  person. 

In  the  very  nature  of  the  Chinese,  whether  men  or  women,  there  is  a large 
element  of  the  histrionic,  even  those  pompous  and  noisy  funerals  of  theirs  be- 
ing little  more  than  an  exhibition  of  private  theatricals.  The  whole  company 
gossip,  drink  tea,  jest,  laugh,  smoke,  and  have  all  the  air  of  a pleasant  social 
party,  until  the  nearest  relation  of  the  deceased  informs  them  that  the  time  to 
mourn  has  come.  Instantly  the  conversation  ceases  and  lamentation  begins. 
The  company  gather  round  the  coffin ; affecting  speeches  are  addressed  to  the 
dead ; groans,  sobs,  and  doleful  cries  are  heard  on  every  side ; tears,  real  tears, 
roll  down  many  cheeks — all  is  woe  and  desolation.  But  when  the  signal  is 
given  to  cease  mourning,  “ the  performers,”  says  M.  Hue,  “ do  not  even  stop  to 
finish  a sob  or  a groan,  but  they  take  their  pipes,  and,  lo  ! they  are  again  those 
incomparable  Chinese,  laughing,  gossiping,  and  drinking  tea.” 

It  need  not  be  said  that  Chinese  women  have  an  ample  share  of  this  pecul- 
iar talent  of  their  race,  nor  that  they  have  very  frequent  occasion  to  exercise  it. 
Nowhere,  even  in  the  East,  are  women  more  subject  or  more  artful  than  in 
China.  “ When  a son  is  born,”  as  a Chinese  authoress  remarks,  he  sleeps 
upon  a bed,  he  is  clothed  with  robes,  and  plays  with  pearls ; every  one  obeys 
his  princely  cries.  But  when  a girl  is  born,  she  sleeps  upon  the  ground,  is 
merely  wrapped  in  a cloth,  plays  with  a tile,  and  is  incapable  of  acting  either 
virtuously  or  viciously.  She  has  nothing  to  think  of  but  preparing  food,  mak- 
ing wine,  and  not  vexing  her  parents.”  This  arrangement  the  authoress  ap- 
proves^ because  it  prepares  the  girl  to  accept  without  repining  the  humiliations 
of  her  lot.  It  is  a proverb  in  China  that  a young  wife  should  be  in  her  house 
but  “ a shadow  and  an  echo.”  As  in  India,  she  does  not  eat  with  her  husband, 
but  waits  upon  him  in  silent  devotion  till  he  is  done,  and  then  satisfies  her  own 
appetite  with  inferior  food. 

Such  is  the  theory  of  her  position.  But  if  we  may  judge  from  Chinese  sat- 
ires, women  are  not  destitute  of  power  in  the  household,  and  employ  the  arts 
of  the  oppressed  with  effect.  Among  the  Chinese  poems  recently  translated 
by  Mr.  G.  C.  Stent  in  the  volume  called  “ The  Jade  Chaplet,”  there  are  a few 
in  the  satiric  vein  which  attest  the  ready  adroitness  of  Chinese  women  in 
moments  of  crisis.  According  to  an  English  author,  “A  woman  takes  as 
naturally  to  a lie  as  a rat  to  a hole.”  The  author  of  these  popular  Chinese 
poems  was  evidently  of  the  same  opinion.  The  specimen  subjoined,  which 
has  not  been  previously  published  in  the  United  States,  shows  us  that  there 
is  much  in  common  between  the  jokes  of  the  two  hemispheres  of  our  mun- 
dane sphere. 


AMONG  THE  CHINESE. 


193 


“FANNING  THE  GRAVE. 

‘^’Twas  spring — the  air  was  redolent 
With  many  a sweet  and  grateful  scent ; 

The  peach  and  plum  bloomed  side  by  side, 

Like  blushing  maid  and  pale-faced  bride ; 

Coy  willows  stealthily  were  seen 
Opening  their  eyes  of  living  green — 

As  if  to  watch  the  sturdy  strife 
Of  nature  struggling  into  life. 

“ One  sunny  morn  a Mr.  Chuang 
Was  strolling  leisurely  along ; 

Viewing  the  budding  flowers  and  trees — 

Sniffing  the  fragrance-laden  breeze — 

Staring  at  those  who  hurried  by, 

Each  loaded  with  a good  supply 
Of  imitation  sycee  shoes. 

To  burn — for  friends  defunct  to  use — 

Of  dainty  viands,  oil,  and  rice, 

And  wine  to  pour  in  sacrifice. 

On  tombs  of  friends  who  ’neath  them  slept. 

(Twas  ‘ 3d  of  the  3d,’  when  the  graves  are  swept.) 

“ Chuang  sauntered  on.  At  length,  on  looking  round, 

He  spied  a cozy-looking  burial-ground  ; 

‘I’ll  turn  in  here  and  rest  a bit,’  thought  he, 

‘And  muse  awhile  on  life’s  uncertainty  ; 

This  quiet  place  just  suits  my  pensive  mood, 

I’ll  sit  and  moralize  in  pleasant  solitude.’ 

So,  sitting  down  upon  a grassy  knoll. 

He  sighed — when  all  at  once  upon  him  stole 
A smothered  sound  of  sorrow  and  distress, 

As  if  one  w'ept  in  very  bitterness. 

“ Mr.  Chuang,  hearing  this,  at  once  got  up  to  see. 

Who  the  sorrowing  mourner  could  possibly  be. 

When  he  saw  a young  woman  fanning  a grave. 

Her  ‘ three-inch  gold  lilies  ’*  were  bandaged  up  tight 
In  the  deepest  of  mourning — her  clothes,  too,  \vere  white. f 
Of  all  the  strange  things  he  had  read  of  or  heard. 

This  one  was  by  far  the  most  strange  and  absurd  ; 

He  had  never  heard  tell  of  one  fanning  a grave. 

“ He  stood  looking  on  at  this  queer  scene  of  woe, 
Unobserved,  but  astounded,  and  curious  to  know 
The  reason  the  woman  was  fanning  the  grave. 

He  thought,  in  this  case,  the  best  thing  he  could  do 
Was  to  ask  her  himself ; so  without  more  ado, 


t White  is  the  color  worn  as  mourning  in  China. 

13 


* Small  feet. 


194 


CAEICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART, 


He  hemmed  once  or  twice,  then  bowing  his  head, 

Advanced  to  the  woman  and  smilingly  said, 

‘ May  I ask,  madam,  why  you  are  fanning  that  grave  f 

“The  woman,  on  this,  glancing  up  with  surprise. 

Looked  as  though  she  could  scarcely  believe  her  own  eyes, 

When  she  saw  a man  watching  her  fanning  the  grave. 

He  was  handsome,  and  might  have  been  thirty  or  more  ; 

The  garb  of  a Taoist  he  tastefully  wore  ; 

His  kind  manner  soon  put  her  quite  at  her  ease. 

So  she  answered  demurely,  ‘Listen,  sir,  if  you  please, 

And  I’ll  tell  you  the  reason  I’m  fanning  this  grave. 

“ ‘My  husband,  alas!  whom  I now  {soh,  sob)  mourn, 

A short  time  since  (sob)  to  this  grave  (sob)  was  borne ; 

And  (sob)  he  lies  buried  in  this  (sob,  sob)  grave.’ 

(Here  she  bitterly  wept.)  ‘Ere  my  (sob)  husband  died. 

He  called  me  (sob)  once  more  (sob,  sob)  to  his  side. 

And  grasping  my — (sob)  with  his  dying  lips  said, 

“When  I’m  gone  (sob,  sob)  promise  (sob)  never  to  wed. 

Till  the  mold  is  (sob)  dry  on  the  top  of  my  graved 

“ ‘I  come  hither  daily  to  (sob)  and  to  weep. 

For  the  promise  I gave  (sob)  I’ll  faithfully  keep, 

IHl  not  wed  till  the  mold  is  (sob)  dry  on  his  grave. 

I don’t  want  to  marry  again  (sob),  I’m  sure. 

But  poverty  (sob)  is  so  hard  to  endure ; 

And,  oh ! I’m  so  lonely,  that  I come  (sob)  to  try 
If  I cant  with  my  fan  help  the  mold  (sob)  to  dry  ; 

And  that  is  the  reason  Tm  fanning  his  graved 

“Hearing  this,  Chuang  exclaimed,  ‘Madam,  give  me  the  fan. 

I'll  willingly  help  you  as  much  as  I can 

In  drying  the  mold  on  your  poor  husband’s  grave.’ 

She  readily  handed  the  fan  up  to  Chuang 

(Who  in  magic  was  skilled — as  he  proved  before  long). 

For  he  muttered  some  words  in  a low  under-tone, 

Flicked  the  fan,  and  the  grave  was  as  dry  as  a bone ; 

‘ There,’  said  he,  ‘ the  mold’s  dry  on  the  top  of  the  grave.’ 

“Joy  plainly  was  seen  on  the  poor  woman’s  face. 

As  she  hastily  thanked  him,  ere  quitting  the  place. 

For  helping  her  dry  up  the  mold  on  the  grave. 

Chuang  watched  her  go  off  with  a cynical  sigh. 

Thought  he,  ‘ Now  suppose  I myself  were  to  die. 

How  long  would  my  wife  in  her  weeds  mourn  my  fate? 

Would  she,  like  this  woman,  have  patience  to  wait 

Till  the  mold  was  well  dry  on  her  poor  husband's  grave'?"' 

There  is  an  amusing  sequel  to  this  poem,  in  which  Chuang  is  exhibited 
putting  his  wife  to  the  test.  Being  a magician,  endowed  with  miraculous 


AMONG  THE  CHINESE. 


195 


power,  he  pretends  to  die;  and  while  his  body  is  in  its  coffin  awaiting  burial, 
ne  assumes  the  form  of  a handsome  young  man,  and  pays  to  his  mourning  wife 
ardent  court. 

“In  short,  they  made  love,  and  the  next  day  were  wed ; 

She  cheerfully  changing  her  white  clothes  to  red.* 

Excited  by  drink,  they  were  going  to  bed. 

When  Chuang  clapped  his  hand  to  his  brow — 

He  groaned.  She  exclaimed,  ‘ What ! are  you  dying  too  ? 

One  husband  I’ve  lost,  and  got  married  to  you ; 

Now  you  are  took  bad.  Oh,  what  shall  I do  ? 

Can  I help  you?  If  so,  tell  me  how.’ 

“‘Alas!’  groaned  the  husband,  ‘I’m  sadly  afraid 
The  disease  that  I have  is  beyond  human  aid. 

Oh ! the  sums  upon  sums  I the  doctors  have  paid  ! 

There  a remedy  is,  to  be  sufe : 

It  is  this : take  the  brains  from  a living  man's  head — 

If  not  to  be  had,  get,  and  mash  up  instead 

Those  of  one  who  no  more  than  three  days  has  been  dead. 

’Twill  effect  an  infallible  cure !’  ” 

The  distracted  widow  did  not  hesitate.  There  was  the  coffin  of  her  la- 
mented husband  before  her,  and  he  had  not  yet  been  dead  three  days : 

“ She  grasped  the  chopper  savagely,  her  brows  she  firmly  knit. 

And  battered  at  the  coffin  until  the  lid  was  split. 

But,  oh  ! what  mortal  pen  could  paint  her  horror  and  her  dread  ? 

A voice  within  exclaimed,  ^ Hollo!'  and  Chuang  popped  up  his  head! 

“ ‘ Hollo !’  again  repeated  he,  as  he  sat  bolt-upright : 

‘ What  made  you  smash  my  coffin  in  ? — I see,  besides,  you're  tight  ! 

You've  dressed  yourself  in  red,  too  ! What  means  this  mummery  ? 

Let  me  have  the  full  particulars,  and  don’t  try  on  flummery.’ 

“She  had  all  her  wits  about  her,  though  she  quaked  a bit  with  fear. 

Said  she  (the  artful  wretch  !),  ‘It  seems  miraculous,  my  dear! 

Some  unseen  power  impelled  me  to  break  the  coffin-lid. 

To  see  if  you  were  still  alive — which,  of  course,  you  know  I did  ! 

“ ‘/ felt  sure  you  must  be  living ; so,  to  welcome  you  once  more. 

My  mourning  robes  I tore  off,  and  my  wedding  garments  wore ; 

Hut,  were  you  dead,  to  guard  against  all  noxious  fumes,  I quaffed. 

As  a measure  of  precaution,  a disinfecting  draught !' 

“Said  Chuang,  ‘Your  tale  is  plausible,  but  I think  you’d  better  stop ; 

Don’t  fatigue  yourself  by  telling  lies  ; just  let  the  matter  drop. 

To  test  your  faithfulness  to  me,  I’ve  been  merely  shamming  dead, 

I'm  the  youth  you  just  now  married — my  widow  Tve  just  wed!'  " 

Appended  to  these  two  poems,  there  is  the  regulation  moral,  in  which  mar- 


* Bed  is  worn  on  joyful  occasions,  such  as  weddings,  etc. 


196 


CAKICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


vied  ladies  are  warned  not  to  be  too  sure  of  their  constancy,  nor  judge  severely 
the  poor  widows  who  make  haste  to  console  themselves. 

“Do  your  best,  but  avoid  supercilious  pride, 

For  you  never  can  tell  what  you’ll  do  till  you’re  tried.” 

We  can  not  say  much  for  the  translation  of  these  comic  works.  Mr.  Stent 
is  a high  authority  in  the  Chinese  language  and  literature,  but  is  not  at  home 
in  English  prosody.  It  is  plain,  however,  from  his  translations,  rough  as  they 
may  be,  that  there  is  a comic  vein  in  the  Chinese  character  which  finds  expres- 
sion in  Chinese  literature. 

Caricature,  as  we  might  suppose,  is  a universal  practice  among  them;  but, 
owing  to  their  crude  and  primitive  taste  in  such  things,  their  efforts  are  sel- 
dom interesting  to  any  but  themselves. 
In  Chinese  collections,  we  see  number- 
less grotesque  exaggerations  of  the 
human  form  and  face,  some  of  which 
are  not  devoid  of  humor  and  artistic 
merit;  but  the  specimens  given  on  this 
and  the  next  page  suffice  for  the  pres- 
ent purpose. 

The  Chinese,  it  appears,  are  fond 
of  exhibiting  their  English  visitors  in 
a ridiculous  light.  The  caricature  of 
an  English  foraging  party,  given  in  the 
first  part  of  this  chapter,  was  brought 
home  thirty  years  ago  by  a printer 
attached  to  an  American  mission  in 
China.  Recently  a new  illustration  of 
this  propensity  has  gone  abroad.  In 
1874  an  account  appeared  in  the  En- 
glish papers  of  the  audience  granted 

A Deaf  Mandarin.  (From  a Figure  in  the  British  tO  the  foreign  ministers  by  the  Empei’- 
Museum.)*  p .-ni  • • i i r 'tt-t 

or  of  China,  m which  Mr.  Wade,  the 
English  embassador,  was  represented  as  having  been  overwhelmed  with  awe 
and  alarm  in  the  presence  of  the  august  potentate,  the  Son  of  Heaven.  The 
origin  of  the  paragraph  was  explained  by  the  Athenmmn: 

“ The  account  was  absurd  in  the  extreme,  and  was  universally  recognized 
as  a squib,  except  by  a writer  in  the  columns  of  a weekly  contemporary,  who 
gravely  undertook  the  task  of  showing,  by  reference  to  the  whole  of  his  pre- 
vious career,  how  very  unlikely  it  was  that  Mr.  Wade  should  give  way  to  the 
weakness  imputed  to  him.  It  now  turns  out  that  the  imaginary  narrative  first 


* “ Malcolm’s  Caricaturing,”  plate  iv.,  fig.  9. 


AMONG  THE  CHINESE. 


191 


Aftee  Dinner.  A Chtni:se  Carioatijre. 
(From  a Figure  iu  the  Britibh  Museum.)* 


appeared  in  the  columns  of  JPiic/c,  a comic  pa- 
per (in  English),  published  at  Shanghai ; that 
it  was  translated  into  Chinese  by  some  native 
wag,  who  palmed  it  off  on  his  countrymen  as  a 
truthful  account  of  the  behavior  of  the  English 
barbarian  on  this  occasion ; and  that  some  in- 
quiring foreigner,  ignorant  of  the  source  from 
whence  it  came,  retranslated  it  into  English, 
and  held  it  up  as  another  instance  of  the  way 
in  which  the  Chinese  pamphleteers  were  at- 
tempting to  undermine  our  influence  in  China 
by  covering  our  minister  with  contempt !” 

The  burlesque  which  thus  imposed  upon  a 
London  editor  was  a creditable  specimen  of 
comic  talent:  “His  majesty  having  as- 
cended the  throne,  the  envoys  were  led  to  the 
space  at  its  foot,  when  they  performed  the  ceremony  of  inclining  the  body. 
They  did  not  kneel.  By  the  side  of  the  steps  there  was  placed  a yellow  table, 
and  the  envoys  stood  in  rank  to  read  out  their  credentials,  the  British  having 
the  leading  place.  When  he  had  read  a few  sentences,  he  began  to  tremble 
from  head  to  foot,  and  was  incapable  of  completing  the  perusal.  The  emperor 
asked,  ‘ Is  the  prince ' of  your  country  well  ?’  But  he  could  utter  no  reply. 
The  emperor  again  asked,  ‘You  have  besought  permission  to  see  me  time  and 
time  again.  What  is  it  you  have  to  say  ?’  But  again  he  was  unable  to  make 
an  answer.  The  next  proceeding  was  to  hand  in  the  credentials ; but,  in  doing 
this,  he  fell  down  on  the  ground  time  after  time,  and  not  a syllable  could  he 
articulate.  Upon  this  Prince  Kung  laughed  loud  at  him  before  the  entire 
court,  exclaimed  ‘ Chicken  - feather  !’  and  gave  orders  to  have  him  assisted 
down  the  steps.  He  was  unable  to  move  of  his  own  accord,  and  sat  down  on 
the  floor,  perspiring  and  panting  for  breath.  The  whole  twelve  shook  their 
heads  and  whispered  together  no  one  knows  what.  When  the  time  came  for 
the  assembly  at  the  banquet,  they  still  remained  incapable,  and  dispersed  in 
hurried  confusion.  Prince  Kung  said  to  them, ‘You  would  not  believe  that  it 
is  no  light  matter  to  come  face  to  face  with  his  majesty;  but  what  have  you 
got  to  say  about  it  to-day  ?’  ” 


* “Malcolm's  Caiicaturing,” plate  iv.,  fig.  3. 


198 


CARICATUEE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

COMIC  ART  IN  JAPAN. 

^r^HE  bright,  good-tempered  people  of  Japan  are  familiar  with  humor  in 
Jl  many  forms,  and  know  how  to  sport  with  pencil  as  well  as  with  pen. 
Their  very  sermons  are  not  devoid  of  the  jocular.  When  a preacher  has 
pointed  his  moral  by  a comical  tale,  he  will  turn  to  the  audience  in  the  most 
familiar,  confidential  manner,  and  say,  “Xow,  isn’t  that  a fanny  story?”  or, 
‘‘  Wasn’t  that  delightful  ?”  Sometimes  he  will  half  apologize  for  the  introduc- 
tion of  mirth-moving  anecdotes:  ‘‘Xow,  my  sermons  are  not  written  for  the 
learned.  I address  myself  to  farmers  and  tradesmen,  who,  hard  pressed  by 

their  daily  business,  have  no  time  for  study Now,  positively  you  must 

not  laugh  if  I introduce  a light  story  now  and  then.  Levity  is  not  my  object; 
I only  want  to  put  things  in  a plain  and  easy  manner.”*  Nothing  yet  brought 
from  that  country  is  more  interesting  to  us  than  the  specimens  given  in  Mr. 
Mitford’s  book  of  the  short,  homely,  humorous,  sound  Japanese  sermons.  The 
existence  of  this  work  is  another  proof  of  the  wisdom  of  giving  consular  and 
diplomatic  appointments  to  men  who  know  how  to  use  their  eyes,  their  hands, 
and  their  minds.  The  sumptuous  work  upon  Japan  by  M.  Aime  Humbert 
could  scarcely  have  been  produced  if  the  author  had  not  been  at  the  head  of  a 
powerful  embassy. 

The  Japanese  are  a gentler  and  kindlier  people  than  the  Chinese;  women 
occupy  a better  position  among  them ; and  hence  the  allusions  to  the  sex  in 
their  literature  are  less  contemptuous  and  satirical.  The  preacher  whose  ser- 
mons Mr.  Mitford  selects  for  translation  is  what  we  should  terra  an  eclectic — 
one  who  owns  fealty  to  none  of  the  great  religions  of  the  East,  but  gleans  les- 
sons of  truth  and  wisdom  from  them  all.  Imagine  him  clad  in  gorgeous  robes 
of  red  and  white,  attended  by  an  acolyte,  entering  a chapel — a spacious,  pleas- 
ant apartment  which  opens  into  a garden — bowing  to  the  sacred  picture  over 
the  altar,  and  taking  a seat  at  a table.  Some  prayers  are  intoned,  incense  is 
burned,  offerings  are  received,  a passage  from  a sacred  book  is  read,  a cup  of 
tea  is  quaffed,  and  then  the  preacher  rises  and  begins  his  chatty,  humorous, 
anecdotical  discourse.  Whenever  he  makes  a point,  the  audience  utters  a re- 


* “Tales  of  Old  Japan,”  vol.  ii.,  p.  138,  by  A.  W.  Mitford,  Secretary  of  the  British  Legation 
in  Japan,  London,  1871. 


COMIC  AKT  IN  JAPAN. 


199 


sponsive  Nimmiyo,”  varying  the  sound  so  as  to  accord  with  the  sentiment 
expressed  by  the  sj^eaker.  Indeed,  it  would  be  difficult  to  name  one  rite,  or 
observance,  or  custom,  or  eccentricity  of  religion  practiced  among  us  here  in 
the  United  States,  the  counterpart  of  which  has  not  been  familiar  to  the  Japa- 
nese from  time  immemorial.  They  have  sacred  books,  a peculiar  cross,  litur- 
gies, temples,  acolytes,  nunneries,  monasteries,  holy  water,  incense,  prayers, 
sermons,  collections,  the  poor-box,  responses,  priestly  robes,  the  bell,  a series 
of  ceremonies  strongly  resembling  the  mass,  followed  by  a sermon,  sacred 
pictures,  anointing,  shaven  crowns,  sects,  orders,  and  systems  of  theology. 

Their  sermons  abound  in  parables  and  similes.  The  preacher  just  men- 
tioned illustrates  his  points  with  amusing  ingenuity.  For  example,  in  a ser- 
mon on  the  folly  of  putting  excessive  trust  in  wealth,  strength,  or  any  other 
advantage  merely  external  or  transitory,  he  relates  a parable  of  a shell-fish — 
the  sazaye — noted  for  the  extreme  hardness  of  its  shell.  One  day,  just  after 
a large  sazaye  had  been  vaunting  his  perfect  security  against  the  dangers  to 
which  other  fish  were  exposed,  there  came  a great  splash  in  the  water.  ‘‘  Mr. 
Sazaye,”  continued  the  preacher,  shut  his  lid  as  quickly  as  possible,  kej3t  quite 
still,  and  thought  to  himself  what  in  the  world  the  noise  could  be.  Could  it 
be  a net?  Could  it  be  a fish-hook?  Were  the  tai  and  the  other  fish  caught? 
he  wondered ; and  he  felt  quite  anxious  about  them.  However,  at  any  rate, 
he  was  safe.  And  so  the  time  passed ; and  when  he  thought  all  was  over,  he 
stealthily  opened  his  shell,  and  slipped  out  his  head  and  looked  all  round  him, 
and  there  seemed  to  be  something  wrong — something  with  which  he  was  not 
familiar.  As  he  looked  a little  more  carefully,  lo  and  behold  1 there  he  was  in 
a fish-monger’s  shop,  and  with  a card,  marked  ‘ Sixteen  Cash,’  on  his  back. 

“Isn’t  that  a funny  story?”  cries  the  jovial  preacher,  smiling  complacently 
upon  the  congregation.  “ Poor  shell-fish ! I think  there  are  people  not  un- 
like him  to  be  found  in  China  and  IndkC’’  This  is  a favorite  joke  with  the 
preacher.  He  frequently  closes  a satirical  passage  by  a similar  remark.  “I 
don’t  mean  to  say  that  there  are  any  such  persons  here.  Oh  no.  Still,  there 
are  plenty  of  them  to  be  found — say,  for  instance,  in  the  back  streets  of  India.” 

The  tone  of  this  merry  instructor  in  righteousness  when  he  is  speaking  of 
women  is  that  of  a tender  father  toward  children.  He  assumes  that  “women 
and  children  ” can  not  understand  any  thing  profound  and  philosophical. 
Righteousness  he  defines  as  “ the  fitting,”  the  ought-to-be ; and  he  considers  it 
“fitting”  that  women  should  be  the  assiduous,  respectful,  and  ever-obedient 
servants  of  men.  A parable  illustrates  his  meaning.  A great  preacher  of  old 
was  once  the  guest  of  a rich  man  of  low  rank,  who  was  “particularly  fond  of 
sermons,”  and  had  a lovely  daughter  of  fifteen,  who  waited  upon  the  preacher 
at  dinner,  and  entertained  him  afterward  upon  the  harp.  “ Really,”  said  the 
learned  preacher,  “it  must  be  a very  difficult  thing  to  educate  a young  lady  up 
to  such  a pitch  as  this.”  The  flattered  parents  could  not  refrain  from  boast- 
ing of  their  daughter’s  accomplishments — her  drawing,  painting,  singing,  and 


200 


CAEICATURE  AND  COMIC  AET. 


flower  - plaiting.  The  wily  preacher,  Socrates -like,  rejoined : “This  is  some- 
thing quite  out  of  the  common  run.  Of  course  slie  knows  how  to  rub  the 
shoulders  and  loins,  and  has  learned  the  art  of  shampooing?”  This  remark 
offends  the  fond  father.  “ I have  not  fallen  so  low  as  to  let  my  daughter  learn 
shampooing !”  The  preacher  blandly  advises  him  not  to  put  himself  in  a pas- 
sion, and  proceeds  to  descant  upon  the  Whole  Duty  of  Woman,  as  understood 
in  Japan.  “ She  must  look  upon  her  husband’s  parents  as  her  own.  If  her 
honored  father-in-law  or  mother-in-law  fall  ill,  her  being  able  to  plait  flowers 
and  paint  pictures  and  make  tea  will  be  of  no  use  in  the  sick-room.  To  sham- 
poo her  parents -in-law,  and  nurse  them  affectionately,  without  employing  a 
shampooer  or  servant-maid,  is  the  right  path  of  a daughter-in-law.”  Upon 
hearing  these  words,  the  father  sees  his  error,  and  blushes  with  shame ; where- 
upon the  preacher  admits  that  music  and  painting  are  not  bad  in  themselves, 
only  they  must  not  be  pursued  to  the  exclusion  of  things  more  important,  of 
which  shampooing  is  one. 

He  draw's  a sad  picture  of  a wife  who  has  learned  nothing  but  the  graceful 
arts.  Before  the  bottom  of  the  family  kettle  is  scorched  black  the  husband 
will  be  sick  of  his  bargain — a wife  all  untidy  about  the  head,  her  apron  fast- 
ened round  her  as  a girdle,  a baby  twisted  somehow  into  the  bosom  of  her 
dress,  and  nothing  in  the  house  to  eat  but  some  wretched  bean-soup,  and  that 
bought  at  a store.  “What  a ten-million-times  miserable  thing  it  is  when  par- 
ents, making  their  little  girls  hug  a great  guitar,  listen  with  pleasure  to  the 
poor  little  things  playing  on  instruments  big  enough  for  them  to  climb  upon, 
and  squeaking  out  songs  in  their  shrill  treble  voices !”  Such  girls,  if  not 
closely  watched,  will  be  prematurely  falling  in  love  and  running  aw^ay  to  be 
married. 

These  sermons  are  so  curiously  different  from  any  thing  which  we  are  ac- 
customed to  think  of  as  sermons  that  I am  tempted  to  extract  the  conclusion 
of  one  of  them.  The  text  is  a passage  from  “ Moshi,”  which  touches  upon  the 
folly  of  men  in  being  more  ashamed  of  a bodily  defect  than  of  a moral  fault. 
Mark  how  the  merry  Japanese  preacher  “ improves  ” the  subject: 

“ What  mistaken  and  bewildered  creatures  men  are ! What  says  the  old 
song?  ‘Hidden  far  among  the  mountains,  the  tree  which  seems  to  be  rotten, 
if  its  core  be  yet  alive,  may  be  made  to  bear  flowers.’  What  signifies  it  if 
the  hand  or  the  foot  be  deformed  ? The  heart  is  the  important  thing.  If  the 
heart  be  awry,  what  though  your  skin  be  fair,  your  nose  aquiline,  your  hair 
beautiful?  All  these  strike  the  eye  alone,  and  are  utterly  useless.  It  is  as  if 
you  were  to  put  horse-dung  into  a gold-lacquer  luncheon-box.  This  is  what  is 
called  a fair  outside,  deceptive  appearance. 

“ There’s  the  scullery-maid  been  washing  out  the  pots  at  the  kitchen-sink, 
and  the  scullion,  Chokichi,  comes  up  and  says  to  her, ‘You’ve  got  a lot  of 
charcoal  smut  sticking  to  your  nose,’  and  points  out  to  her  the  ugly  spot.  The 
scullery-maid  is  delighted  to  be  told  of  this,  and  answers,  ‘ Really ! where- 


COMIC  ART  IN  JAPAN. 


201 


abouts  is  it?’  Then  she  twists  a tow^el  round  her  finger,  and, 'Dending  her  head 
till  mouth  and  forehead  are  almost  on  a level,  she  squints  at  her  nose,  and 
twiddles  away  with  her  fingers  as  if  she  were  the  famous  Goto  at  work  carv- 
ing the  ornaments  of  a sword-handle.  ‘I  say.  Master  Chokichi,  is  it  off  yet?’ 
‘Not  a bit  of  it.  You’ve  smeared  it  all  over  your  cheeks  now\’  ‘Oh  dear! 
oh  dear ! wdiere  can  it  be  ?’  And  so  she  uses  the  w’ater-basin  as  a looking- 
glass,  and  washes  her  face  clean ; then  she  says  to  herself,  ‘ What  a dear  boy 
Chokichi  is !’  and  thinks  it  necessary,  out  of  gratitude,  to  give  him  relishes 
with  his  supper  by  the  ladleful,  and  thanks  him  over  and  over  again.  But  if 
this  same  Chokichi  were  to  come  up  to  her  and  say,  ‘ Now,  really,  how  lazy  you 
are ! I wish  you  could  manage  to  be  rather  less  of  a shrew,’  what  do  you 
think  the  scullery-maid  would  answer  then?  Reflect  for  a moment.  ‘Drat 
the  boy’s  impudence ! If  I were  of  a bad  heart  or  an  angular  disposition, 
should  I be  here  helping  him?  You  go  and  be  hanged!  You  see  if  I take 
the  trouble  to  wash  your  dirty  bedclothes  for  you  any  more.’  And  she  gets 
to  be  a perfect  devil,  less  only  the  horns. 

“There  are  other  people  besides  the  poor  scullery-maid  who  are  in  the 
same  w^ay.  ‘Excuse  me,  Mr.  Gundabei,  but  the  embroidered  crest  on  your 
dress  of  ceremony  seems  to  be  a little  on  one  side.’  Mr.  Gundabei  proceeds 
to  adjust  his  dress  with  great  precision.  ‘Thank  you,  sir.  I am  ten  million 
times  obliged  to  you  for  your  care.  If  ever  there  should  be  any  matter  in 
which  I can  be  of  service  to  you,  I beg  that  you  will  do  me  the  favor  of  letting 
me  know;’  and,  with  a beaming  face,  he  expresses  his  gratitude.  Now^  for  the 
other  side  of  the  picture : ‘ Really,  Mr.  Gundabei,  you  are  very  foolish ; you 
don’t  seem  to  understand  at  all.  I beg  you  to  be  of  a frank  and  honest  heart: 
it  really  makes  me  quite  sad  to  see  a man’s  heart  warped  in  this  way.’  What 
is  his  answer?  He  turns  his  sword  in  his  girdle  ready  to  draw,  and  plays  the 
devil’s  tattoo  upon  the  hilt.  It  looks  as  if  it  must  end  in  a fight  soon. 

“In  fact,  if  you  help  a man  in  any  thing  which  has  to  do  with  a fault  of 
the  body,  he  takes  it  very  kindly,  and  sets  about  mending  matters.  If  any  one 
helps  another  to  rectify  a fault  of  the  heart,  he  has  to  deal  with  a man  in  the 
dark,  who  flies  in  a rage,  and  does  not  care  to  amend.  How  out  of  tune  all 
this  is ! And  yet  there  are  men  who  are  bewildered  up  to  this  point.  Nor  is 
this  a special  and  extraordinary  failing.  This  mistaken  perception  of  the  great 
and  the  small,  of  color  and  of  substance,  is  common  to  us  all — to  you  and  to  me. 

“Please  give  me  your  attention.  The  form  strikes  the  eye;  but  the  heart 
strikes  not  the  eye.  Therefore,  that  the  heart  should  be  distorted  and  turned 
awry  causes  no  pain.  This  all  results  from  the  want  of  sound  judgment;  and 
that  is  why  we  can  not  afford  to  be  careless. 

“ The  master  of  a certain  house  calls  his  servant  Chokichi,  who  sits  dozing 
in  the  kitchen.  ‘Here,  Chokichi!  The  guests  are  all  gone.  Come  and  clear 
away  the  wine  and  fish  in  the  back  room.’ 

“ Chokichi  rubs  his  eyes,  and,  with  a sulky  answer,  goes  into  the  back  room. 


202 


CARICATUEE  AND  COJMIC  ART. 


and,  looking  about  him,  sees  all  the  nice  things  paraded  on  the  trays  and  in  the 
bowls.  It’s  wonderful  how  his  drowsiness  passes  away:  no  need  for  any  one 
to  hurry  him  now.  His  eyes  glare  with  greed,  as  he  says,  ‘ Halloo ! here’s  a 
lot  of  tempting  things!  There’s  only  just  one  help  of  that  omelet  left  in  the 
tray.  What  a hungry  lot  of  guests ! What’s  this?  It  looks  like  fish  rissoles;’ 
and  with  this  he  picks  out  one,  and  crams  his  mouth  full,  when,  on  one  side,  a 
mess  of  young  cuttle-fish,  in  a Chinese  porcelain  bowl,  catches  his  eyes.  There 
the  little  beauties  sit  in  a circle,  like  Buddhist  priests  in  religious  meditation  1 
‘ Oh,  goodness ! how  nice !’  and  just  as  he  is  dipping  his  finger  and  thumb  in, 
he  hears  his  master’s  footstep,  and,  knowing  that  he  is  doing  wrong,  he  crams 
his  prize  into  the  pocket  of  his  sleeve,  and  stoops  down  to  take  away  the 
wine-kettle  and  cups ; and  as  he  does  this,  out  tumbles  the  cuttle-fish  from 
his  sleeve.  The  master  sees  it. 

‘ What’s  that  ?’ 

“ Chokichi,  pretending  not  to  know  what  has  happened,  beats  the  mats, 
and  keeps  on  saying,  ‘ Come  again  the  day  before  yesterday ; come  again  the 
day  before  yesterday.’  [An  incantation  used  to  invite  spiders,  which  are  con- 
sidered unlucky  by  the  superstitious,  to  come  again  at  the  Greek  Kalends.] 

“ But  it’s  no  use  his  trying  to  persuade  his  master  that  the  little  cuttle-fish 
are  spiders,  for  they  are  not  the  least  like  them.  It’s  no  use  hiding  things — 
they  are  sure  to  come  to  light;  and  so  it  is  with  the  heart — its  purposes  will 
out.  If  the  heart  is  enraged,  the  dark  veins  stand  out  on  the  forehead ; if  the 
heart  is  grieved,  tears  rise  to  the  eyes ; if  the  heart  is  joyous,  dimples  appear 
in  the  cheeks ; if  the  heart  is  merry,  the  face  smiles.  Thus  it  is  that  the  face 
reflects  the  emotions  of  the  heart.  It  is  not  because  the  eyes  are  filled  with 
tears  that  the  heart  is  sad,  nor  that  the  veins  stand  out  on  the  forehead  that 
the  heart  is  enraged.  It  is  the  heart  which  leads  the  way  in  every  thing.  All 
the  important  sensations  of  the  heart  are  apparent  in  the  outward  appearance. 
In  the  ‘Great  Learning’  of  Koshi  it  is  written,  ‘The  truth  of  what  is  within 
appears  upon  the  surface.’  How,  then,  is  the  heart  a thing  which  can  be  hid- 
den ? To  answer  when  reproved,  to  hum  tunes  when  scolded,  show  a dis- 
eased heart;  and  if  this  disease  be  not  quickly  taken  in  hand,  it  will  become 
chronic,  and  the  remedy  become  difficult.  Perhaps  the  disease  may  be  so  vir- 
ulent that  even  Giba  and  Henjaku  [two  famous  Indian  physicians]  in  consulta- 
tion could  not  effect  a cure.  So,  before  the  disease  has  gained  strength,  I in- 
vite you  to  the  study  of  the  moral  essays  entitled  ‘Shingaku’  [the  “Learning 
of  the  Heart”].  If  you  once  arrive  at  the  possession  of  your  heart  as  it  was 
originally  by  nature,  what  an  admirable  thing  that  will  be ! In  that  case  your 
conscience  will  point  out  to  you  even  the  slightest  wrong  bias  or  selfishness. 

“ While  upon  this  subject,  I may  tell  you  a story  which  was  related  to  me 
by  a friend  of  mine.  It  is  a story  which  the  master  of  a certain  money- 
changer’s shop  used  to  be  very  fond  of  telling.  An  important  part  of  a money- 
changer’s business  is  to  distinguish  between  good  and  bad  gold  and  silver.  In 


•COMIC  ART  IN  JAPAN. 


203 


the  different  establishments,  the  ways  of  teaching  the  apprentices  this  art  vary ; 
however,  the  plan  adopted  by  the  money-changer  was  as  follows : at  first  he 
would  show  them  no  bad  silver,  but  would  daily  put  before  them  good  money 
only;  when  they  had  become  thoroughly  familiar  with  the  sight  of  good 
money,  if  he  stealthily  put  a little  base  coin  among  the  good,  he  found  that 
they  would  detect  it  immediately.  They  saw  it  as  plainly  as  you  see  things 
when  you  throw  light  on  a mirror.  This  faculty  of  detecting  base  money  at  a 
glance  was  the  result  of  having  learned  thoroughly  to  understand  good  money. 
Having  been  taught  once  in  this  way,  the  apprentices  would  not  make  a mis- 
take about  a piece  of  base  coin  during  their  whole  lives,  as  I have  heard.  I 
can’t  vouch*  for  the  truth  of  this ; but  it  is  very  certain  that  the  principle,  ap- 
plied to  moral  instruction,  is  an  excellent  one — it  is  a most  safe  mode  of  study. 
However,  I was  further  told  that  if,  after  having  thus  learned  to  distinguish 
good  money,  a man  followed  some  other  trade  for  six  months  or  a year,  and 
gave  up  handling  money,  he  would  become  just  like  any  other  inexperienced 
person,  unable  to  distinguish  the  good  from  the  base. 

‘‘  Please  reflect  upon  this  attentively.  If  you  once  render  yourself  famil- 
iar with  the  nature  of  the  uncorrupted  heart,  from  that  time  forth  you  will  be 
immediately  conscious  of  the  slightest  inclination  toward  bias  or  selfishness. 
And  why?  Because  the  natural  heart  is  illumined.  When  a man  has  once 
learned  that  which  is  perfect,  he  will  never  consent  to  accept  that  which  is  im- 
perfect; but  if,  after  having  acquired  this  knowledge,  he  again  keeps  his  natu- 
ral heart  at  a distance,  and  gradually  forgets  to  recognize  that  which  is  perfect, 
he  finds  himself  in  the  dark  again,  and  that  he  can  no  longer  distinguish  base 
money  from  good.  I beg  you  to  take  care.  If  a man  falls  into  bad  habits,  he 
is  no  longer  able  to  perceive  the  difference  between  the  good  impulses  of  his 
natural  heart  and  the  evil  impulses  of  his  corrupt  heart.  With  this  benighted 
heart  as  a starting-point,  he  can  carry  out  none  of  his  intentions,  and  he  has 
to  lift  his  shoulders,  sighing  and  sighing  again.  A creature  much  to  be  pitied 
indeed ! Then  he  loses  all  self-reliance,  so  that,  although  it  would  be  better 
for  him  to  hold  his  tongue  and  say  nothing  about  it,  if  he  is  in  the  slightest 
trouble  or  distress  he  goes  and  confesses  the  crookedness  of  his  heart  to  ev- 
ery man  he  meets.  What  a wretched  state  for  a man  to  be  in ! For  this 
reason,  I beg  you  to  learn  thoroughly  the  true  silver  of  the  heart,  in  order 
that  you  may  make  no  mistake  about  the  base  coin.  I pray  that  you  and  I, 
during  our  whole  lives,  may  never  leave  the  path  of  true  principles. 

“ I have  an  amusing  story  to  tell  you  in  connection  with  this,  if  you  will  be 
so  good  as  to  listen. 

Once  upon  a time,  when  the  autumn  nights  were  beginning  to  grow  chilly, 
five  or  six  tradesmen  in  easy  circumstances  had  assembled  together  to  have  a 
chat;  and,  having  got  ready  their  picnic-box  and  wine-flask,  went  off  to  a tem- 
ple on  the  hills,  where  a friendly  priest  lived,  that  they  might  listen  to  the  stags 
roaring.  With  this  intention  they  went  to  call  upon  the  priest,  and  borrowed 


204 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


the  guests’  apartments  [all  the  temples  in  China  and  Japan  have  guests’  apart- 
ments, which  may  be  secured  for  a trifle,  either  for  a long  or  short  period.  It 
is  false  to  suppose  that  there  is  any  desecration  of  a sacred  shrine  in  the  act  of 
using  it  as  a hostelry:  it  is  the  custom  of  the  country]  of  the  monastery;  and 
as  they  were  waiting  to  hear  the  deer  roar,  some  of  the  party  began  to  compose 
poetry.  One  would  write  a verse  of  Chinese  poetry,  and  another  would  write 
a verse  of  seventeen  syllables ; and  as  they  were  passing  the  wine-cup  the  hour 
of  sunset  came,  but  not  a deer  had  uttered  a call ; eight  o’clock  came,  and  ten 
o’clock  came ; still  not  a sound  from  the  deer. 

i What  can  this  mean  ?’  said  one.  ‘ The  deer  surely  ought  to  be  roaring.’ 
^‘But,  in  spite  of  their  waiting,  the  deer  would  not  roar.  At  last  the 
friends  got  sleepy,  and,  bored  with  writing  songs  and  verses,  began  to  yawn, 
and  gave  up  twaddling  about  the  woes  and  troubles  of  life ; and  as  they  were 
all  silent,  one  of  them,  a man  flfty  years  of  age,  stopping  the  circulation  of  the 
wine-cup,  said : 

‘‘‘Well,  certainly,  gentlemen,  thanks  to  you,  we  have  spent  the  evening  in 
very  pleasant  conversation.  However,  although  I am  enjoying  myself  mightily 
in  this  way,  my  people  at  home  must  be  getting  anxious,  and  so  I begin  to 
think  that  we  ought  to  leave  off  drinking.’ 

“ ‘ Why  so  ?’  said  the  others. 

“‘Well,  I’ll  tell  you.  You  know  that  my  only  son  is  twenty-two  years  of 
age  this  year;  and  a troublesome  fellow  he  is,  too.  When  I’m  at  home,  he 
lends  a hand  sulkily  enough  in  the  shop ; but  as  soon  as  he  no  longer  sees  the 
shadow  of  me,  he  hoists  sail,  and  is  off  to  some  bad  haunt.  Although  our  re- 
lations and  connections  are  always  preaching  to  him,  not  a word  has  any  more 
effect  than  wind  blowing  into  a horse’s  ear.  When  I think  that  I shall  have 
to  leave  my  property  to  such  a fellow  as  that,  it  makes  my  heart  grow  small 
indeed.  Although,  thanks  to  those  to  whom  I have  succeeded,  I want  for 
nothing;  still,  when  I think  of  my  son,  I shed  tears  of  blood  night  and  day.’ 
“And  as  he  said  this  with  a sigh,  a man  of  some  forty-five  or  forty-six 
years  said : 

“‘ Yo,  no.  Although  you  make  so  much  of  your  misfortunes,  your  son  is 
but  a little  extravagant,  after  all.  There’s  no  such  great  cause  for  grief  there. 
I’ve  got  a very  different  story  to  tell.  Of  late  years  my  shop-men,  for  one  rea- 
son or  another,  have  been  running  me  into  debt,  thinking  nothing  of  a debt  of 
fifty  or  seventy  ounces;  and  so  the  ledgers  get  all  wrong.  Just  think  of  that! 
Here  have  I been  keeping  these  fellows  ever  since  they  were  little  children  un- 
able to  blow  their  own  noses,  and  now,  as  soon  as  they  come  to  be  a little  use- 
ful in  the  shop,  they  begin  running  up  debts,  and  are  no  good  whatever  to  their 
master.  You  see,  you  only  have  to  spend  your  money  upon  your  own  son.’ 
“Then  another  gentleman  said:  • 

“‘Well,  I think  that  to  spend  money  upon  your  shop- people  is  no  such 
great  hardsliip,  after  all.  Now,  I’ve  been  in  sometliing  like  trouble  lately.  I 


COMIC  ART  IN  JAPAN. 


205 


can’t  get  a penny  out  of  my  customers.  One  man  owes  me  fifteen  ounces; 
another  owes  me  twenty-five  ounces.  Really  that  is  enough  to  make  a man 
feel  as  if  his  heart  were  worn  away.’ 

“ When  he  had  finished  speaking,  an  old  gentleman,  who  was  sitting  oppo- 
site, playing  with  his  fan,  said  : 

‘‘  ‘ Certainly,  gentlemen,  your  grievances  are  not  without  cause ; still,  to  be 
perpetually  asked  for  a little  money,  or  to  back  a bill,  by  one’s  relations  or 
friends,  and  to  have  a lot  of  hangers-on  dependent  on  one,  as  I have,  is  a worse 
case  still.’ 

‘‘  But  before  the  old  gentleman  had  half  finished  speaking,  his  neighbor 
called  out : 

“ ‘ Ko,  no  ; all  you  gentlemen  are  in  luxury  compared  to  me.  Please  listen 
to  what  I have  to  suffer.  My  wife  and  my  mother  can’t  hit  it  off  anyhow. 
All  day  long  they’re  like  a couple  of  cows  butting  at  one  another  with  their 
horns.  The  house  is  as  unendurable  as  if  it  were  full  of  smoke.  I often  think 
it  would  be  better  to  send  my  wife  back  to  her  village;  but,  then,  Pve  got  two 
little  children.  If  I interfere  and  take  my  wife’s  part,  my  mother  gets  low- 
spirited.  If  I scold  my  wife,  she  says  that  I treat  her  so  brutally  because 
she’s  not  of  the  same  flesh  and  blood ; and  then  she  hates  me.  The  trouble  and 
anxiety  are  beyond  description : I’m  like  a post  stuck  up  between  them.’ 

‘‘And  so  they  all  twaddled  away  in  chorus,  each  about  his  own  troubles. 
At  last  one  of  the  gentlemen,  recollecting  himself,  said : 

“ ‘ Well,  gentlemen,  certainly  the  deer  ought  to  be  roaring;  but  we’ve  been 
so  engrossed  with  our  conversation  that  we  don’t  know  whether  we  have 
missed  hearing  them  or  not.’ 

“ With  this  he  pulled  aside  the  sliding-door  of  the  veranda  and  looked  out, 
and,  lo  and  behold ! a great  big  stag  was  standing  perfectly  silent  in  front  of 
the  garden. 

“ ‘ Halloo  !’  said  the  man  to  the  deer,  ‘ what’s  this?  Since  you’ve  been  there 
all  the  time,  why  did  you  not  roar?’ 

“ Then  the  stag  answered,  with  an  innocent  face, 

“ ‘ Oh,  I came  here  to  listen  to  the  lamentations  of  you  gentlemen.’ 

“ Isn’t  that  a funny  story  ? 

“ Old  and  young,  men  and  women,  rich  and  poor,  never  cease  grumbling 
from  morning  till  night.  All  this  is  the  result  of  a diseased  heart.  In  short, 
for  the  sake  of  a very  trifling  inclination  or  selfish  pursuit,  they  will  do  any 
wrong  in  order  to  effect  that  which  is  impossible.  This  is  want  of  judgment, 
and  this  brings  all  sorts  of  trouble  upon  the  world.  If  once  you  gain  posses- 
sion of  a perfect  heart,  knowing  that  which  is  impossible  to  be  impossible,  and 
recognizing  that  that  which  is  difficult  is  difficult,  you  will  not  attempt  to  spare 
yourself  trouble  unduly.  What  says  the  ‘Chin-Yo?’  The  wise  man,  whether 
his  lot  be  cast  among  rich  or  poor,  among  barbarians  or  in  sorrow,  understands 
his  position  by  his  own  instinct.  If  men  do  not  understand  this,  they  think 


206 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


that  the  causes  of  pain  and  pleasure  are  in  the  body.  Putting  the  heart  on 
one  side,  they  earnestly  strive  after  the  comforts  of  the  body,  and  launch  into 
extravagance,  the  end  of  which  is  miserly  parsimony.  Instead  of  pleasure, 
they  meet  with  grief  of  the  heart,  and  pass  their  lives  in  weeping  and  wailing. 
In  one  way  or  another,  everything  in  this  world  depends  upon  the  heart.  I 
implore  every  one  of  you  to  take  heed  that  tears  fall  not  to  your  lot.” 

A people  capable  of  producing  and  enjoying  sermons  like  these,  so  free 
from  the  solemn  and  the  sanctimonious,  would  be  likely  to  wield  the  humorous 
pencil  also.  Turning  to  the  illustrated  work  of  M.  Aime  Humbert,  we  find  that 
the  foibles  of  human  nature  are  satirized  by  the  Japanese  draughtsmen  in  cari- 


Tiie  Rat  Rice  Mekoiiants.  (A  Japanese  Caricature,  from  “Japan  and  the  Japanese,”  by  Aime  Humbert.) 

catures,  of  which  M.  Humbert  gives  several  specimens.  These,  however,  are 
not  executed  with  the  clearness  and  precision  which  alone  could  render  them 
effective  in  our  eyes ; and  a very  large  proportion  of  them  emj^loy  that  most 
ancient  and  well-worn  device  of  investing  animals  with  the  faculties  of  human 
beings.  The  best  is  one  representing  rats  performing  all  the  labors  of  a rice 
warehouse.  Rats,  as  M.  Humbert  remarks,  are  in  Japan  the  most  dreaded  and 
determined  thieves  of  the  precious  rice.  The  picture  contains  every  feature 
of  the  scene — the  cashier  making  his  calculations  with  his  bead  calculator ; the 
salesman  turning  over  his  books  in  order  to  show  his  customers  how  impos- 
sible it  is  for  him  to  abate  a single  cash  in  the  price;  the  shop-men  carrying 


COMIC  AKT  IN  JAPAN. 


207 


the  bales;  coolies  bearing  the  straw  bags  of  money  at  the  end  of  bamboos; 
porters  tugging  away  at  a sack  just  added  to  the  slock;  and  a new  customer 
saluting  the  merchant.  The  Japanese  do  not  confine  themselves  to  this  kind 
of  burlesque.  They  take  pleasure  in  representing  a physician  examining  with 
exaggerated  gravity  a patient’s  tongue,  or  peering  into  ailing  eyes  through 
enormous  spectacles,  while  he  lifts  with  extreme  caution  the  corner  of  the 
eyelid.  A quack  shampooing  a victim  is  another  of  their  subjects.  One  pict- 
ure represents  a band  of  blind  shampooers  on  their  travels,  who,  in  the  midst 
of  a ford,  are  ’disputing  what  direction  they  shall  take  when  they  reach  the 
opposite  bank.  Begging  friars,  mishaps  of  fishermen,  blind  men  leading  the 
blind,  jealous  women,  household  dissensions,  women  excessively  dressed,  fur- 
nish opportunities  for  the  satirical  pencil  of  the  Japanese  artists,  w’ho  also 
publish  series  of  comic  pictures,  as  we  do,  upon  such  subjects  as  “Little 
Troubles  in  the  Great  World,”  “The  Fat  Man’s  Household,”  “The  Thin 
Man’s  Household.”  If  these  efforts  of  the  Japanese  caricaturists  do  not  often 
possess  much  power  to  amuse  the  outside  world,  they  have  one  qualification 
that  entitles  them  to  respect — most  of  them  are  good-tempered. 


208 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

FRENCH  CARICATURE. 

IT  is  inevitable  that  bad  rulers  should  dread  the  satiric  pencil.  Caricature, 
powerless  against  an  administration  that  is  honest  and  competent,  power- 
less against  a public  man  who  does  his  duty  in  his  place,  is  nevertheless  a most 
effective  device  against  arrogance,  double-dealing,  corruption,  cowardice,  and 
iniquity.  England,  as  the  French  themselves  admit,  is  the  native  home  of  po- 
litical caricature;  but  not  an  instance  can  be  named  in  all  its  history  of  cari- 
cature injuring  a good  man  or  defeating  a good  measure.  A free  pencil,  too, 
becomes  ever  a gayer  and  a kinder  pencil.  The  measure  of  freedom  which 
France  has  occasionally  enjoyed  during  the  last  ninety  years  has  never  lasted 
long  enough  to  wear  off  the  keen  point  of  the  satirist’s  ridicule ; and  collectors 
can  tell,  by  the  number  and  severity  of  the  pictures  in  a port-folio,  just  how 
much  freedom  Frenchmen  possessed  when  they  were  produced.  It  is  curious, 
also,  to’ note  that  caricatures  on  the  wrong  side  of  great  public  questions  are 
never  excellent.  It  is  doubtful  if  a bad  man  with  the  wealth  of  an  empire  at 
his  command  could  procure  the  execution  of  one  first-rate  caricature  hostile  to 
the  public  good.  A despot  can  never  fight  this  fire  with  fire,  and  has  no  re- 
source but  to  stamp  it  out. 

Vainly,  therefore,  will  the  most  vigilant  collector  search  iov  French  carica- 
tures of  Xapoleon  Bonaparte  published  during  his  reign.  His  government  was 
a despotism  not  tempered  by  epigrams,  and  it  was  controlled  by  a despot  who, 
though  not  devoid  of  a sense  of  humor,  had  all  a Corsican’s  mortal  hatred  of 
ridicule.  NTo  man  in  France  was  less  French  than  Xapoleon,  either  in  lineage 
or  in  character.  His  moral  position  in  Paris  was  not  unlike  that  which  Othello 
might  have  held  in  Venice,  if  Othello  had  been  base  enough  to  betray  and  ex- 
])el  the  senate  which  he  had  sworn  to  serve.  We  can  imagine  how  the  shy, 
proud  Moor  would  have  writhed  under  the  pasquinades  of  the  graceful,  disso- 
lute Venetian  wits  whom  he  despised.  So  Napoleon,  who  never  ceased  to  have 
much  in  him  of  the  semi-barbarian  chief  (and  always  looked  like  one  when 
he  was  dressed  in  imperial  robes),  shrunk  with  morbid  apprehension  from  the 
tongue  of  Madame  De  Stael,  and  wrote  autograph  notes  to  Fouche  calling  his 
attention  to  the  placards  and  verses  of  the  street-corners.  There  is  something 
more  than  ludicrous  in  the  spectacle  of  this  rude  soldier,  with  a million  armed 
men  under  his  command,  and  half  Europe  at  his  feet,  sitting  down  in  rage  and 


FRENCH  CARICATURE. 


209 


affright  to  order  Fouclie  to  send  a little  woman  over  the  frontiers  lest  she 
should  say  something  about 
him  for  the  drawing-rooms  of 
Paris  to  laugh  at. 

In  place  of  caricature, 
therefore,  we  have  only  alle- 
gorical “ glory  ” in  the  fugi- 
tive pictures  of  his  reign,  few 
of  which  are  worthy  of  re- 
membrance. 

English  Gillray,  on  the 
other  side  of  the  Channel, 
made  most  ample  amends. 

Modern  caricature  has  not 
often  equaled  some  of  the 
best  of  Gillray ’s  upon  Napo- 
leon. In  1806,  when  the  con- 
queror had  finally  lost  his 
head,  dazzled  and  bewildered 
by  his  own  victories,  and  was 
setting  up  new  kingdoms  with 
a facility  which  began  to  be 
amusing,  Gillray  produced  his 
masterpiece  of  the  “Great 
French  Gingerbread  Baker 
drawing  out  a New  Batch  of  Kings.”  It  is  full  of  happy  detail.  Besides  the 
central  figure  of  Bonaparte  himself  drawing  from  the  “New  French  Oven”  a 
fresh  batch  of  monarchs,  we  see  Bishop  Talleyrand  kneading  in  the  “ Political 
Kneading-trough,”  into  which  Poland,  Hanover,  and  Prussia  have  just  been 
thrown.  There  is  also  the  “Ash- hole  for  Broken  Gingerbread,”  into  which 
Spain,  Italy,  Switzerland,  and  broad-backed  Holland  have  been  swept.  On  a 
chest  of  drawers  stand  a number  of  “Dough  Viceroys  intended  for  the  Next 
Batch,”  and  the  drawers  are  labeled  “ Kings  and  Queens,”  “ Crowns  and  Scep- 
tres,” “ Suns  and  Moons.”  Gillray  burlesqued  almost  all  the  history  of  the 
gingerbread  colossus  from  the  Egyptian  expedition  onward,  but  he  never 
surpassed  the  gayety  and  aptness  of  this  picture,  which  was  all  the  more  ef- 
fective in  English  eyes  because  gilt  gingerbread  made  into  figures  of  kings, 
queens,  crowns,  anchors,  and  princes’  feathers,  is  a familiar  object  at  English 
fairs. 

Napoleon  himself  may  have  laughed  at  it.  We  know  that  at  St.  Helena  he 
applauded  English  caricatures  of  a similar  character,  notably  one  which  repre- 
sented George  HI.  as  a corpulent  old  man  standing  on  the  English  coast,  hurl- 
ing in  fury  a huge  beet  at  the  head  of  Napoleon  on  the  other  side  of  the  Chan- 

14 


210  CARICATURE  AND  COxMIC  ART. 

p 

nel,  and  saying  to  him,  “ Go  and  make  yourself  some  sugar  !”*  We  know  also 
that  while  he  relished  the  satirical  pictures  aimed  at  his  enemies  and  rivals,  he 
was  very  far  from  enjoying  those  which  reflected  disagreeably  upon  himself. 
“ If  caricatures,”  said  he  one  day  at  St.  Helena,  “ sometimes  avenge  misfortune, 
they  form  a continual  annoyance  to  power;  and  how  many  have  been  made 
upon  me ! I think  I have  had  my  share  of  them.” 

Even  he  did  not  care  for  caricature  when  he  was  right.  If  it  can  be  said 
that  Napoleon  Bonaparte  conferred  uj)on  France  one  lasting  good,  it  was  beet- 
root sugar;  but  the  satire  aimed  at  that  useful  article  does  not  appear  to  have 
offended  him.  In  a newspaper  of  June,  1812,  we  read:  “A  caricature  has 
been  executed  at  Paris,  in  which  the  emperor  and  the  King  of  Rome  are  the 

most  prominent  characters. 
The  emperor  is  represented 
as  sitting  at  the  table  in  the 
nursery  with  a cup  of  coffee 
before  him,  into  which  he  is 
squeezing  beet-root.  Near  to 
him  is  seated  the  young  King 
of  Rome,  voraciously  sucking 
the  beet -root.  The  nurse, 
who  is  steadfastly  observing 
him,  is  made  to  say,  ^SmJc, 
dear,  suck ; your  father  says 
it  is  sugar.’  ” He  did  not 
care,  probably,  for  that.  It 
would  have  been  far  other- 
wise if  a draughtsman  had 
touched  upon  his  mad  inva- 
sion of  Russia. 

It  was  not  until  his  pow- 
er was  gone  that  French  sat- 
irists tried  their  pencils  upon 
him,  and  then  with  no  great 
success.  With  the  downfall 
of  Napoleon  was  involved  the 
prostration  of  France.  Hu- 
miliation followed  humilia- 
tion. The  spirit  of  French- 
men was  broken,  and  their 

A Great  Man’s  Last  Leap — Napoleon  going  on  Board  the  En-  I'eSOUl’CeS  WCre  exhausted.  In 
GLisu  Frigate,  assisted  uy  tue  Faithful  Bertrand.  (Paris, 

1815.)  the  presence  of  such  events  as 


“Napoleon  at  St.  Helena,”  p.  90,  by  John  S.  C.  Abbott,  New  York,  Harper  & Brothers. 


FRENCH  CARICATURE. 


211 


t]ie  Russian  catastrophe,  the  march  of  the  allies  upon  Paris,  iSTapoleon’s  banish- 
ment to  Elba,  the  Hundred  Days,  Waterloo,  the  encampment  of  foreign  armies 
in  the  public  places  of  Paris,  the  flight  of  the  emperor,  and  his  final  exile,  the 
satirist  was  superseded,  and  burlesque  itself  was  outdone  by  reality.  When 
at  last  Paris  was  restored  to  herself,  and  peace  again  gav^e  play  to  the  human 
mind,  Napoleon  was  covered  with  the  majesty  of  what  seemed  a sublime  mis- 
fortune. That  peerless  histrionic  genius  took  the  precaution  in  critical  mo- 
ments to  let  the  world  know  what  character  he  was  enacting,  and  accordingly, 
when  he  stepped  on  board  the  English  man-of-war,  he  announced  himself  to 
mankind  as  Themistocles  magnanimously  seeking  an  asylum  at  the  hands  of 
the  most  powerful  of  his  enemies. 

The  good  ruler  is  he  who  leaves  to  his  successor,  if  not  an  easy  task,  yet 
one  not  too  difficult  for  respectable  talents.  Napoleon  solved  none  of  the 
menacing  problems.  He  threw  no  light  upon  the  difficulties  with  which  the 
modern  world  finds  itself  face  to  face.  Every  year  that  he  reigned  he  only 
heaped  up  perplexity  for  his  successors,  until  the  mountain  mass  transcended 
all  human  ability,  and  entailed  upon  Frenchmen  that  tumultuous  apprentice- 
ship in  self-government  which  is  yet  far  from  ending. 

The  first  effort  of  the  caricaturists  in  Paris  after  the  Restoration  was  sim- 
ply to  place  the  figure  of  a weather-cock  after  the  names  of  public  men  who 
had  shown  particular  alacrity  in  changing  their  politics  with  the  changing 
dynasties.  This  was  soon  improved  upon  by  putting  weather-cocks  enough 
to  denote  the  precise  number  of  times  a personage  had  veered.  Thus  Talley- 
rand, who  from  being  a bishop  and  a nobleman  had  become  a republican,  then 
a minister  under  Napoleon,  and  at  last  a supporter  and  servant  of  the  Restora- 
tion, besides  exhibiting  various  minor  changes. 


Six  appears  to  have  been  the  favorite  number.  We  find  in  a previous 
picture  that  he  is  represented  as  the  man  with  six  heads.  The  public  men  sig- 
nalized by  this  simple  device  were  said  to  belong  to  the  Order  of  the  Weather- 
cock ; and  it  was  the  interest  of  the  reactionists,  who  urged  on  the  trial  and 
execution  of  Ney  and  his  comrades,  to  cover  them  with  odium.  To  this  day 
much  of  that  odium  clings  to  the  name  of  Talleyrand.  A man  who  keeps  a 
cool  head  in  the  midst  of  madmen  is  indeed  a most  offensive  person,  and  Tal- 
leyrand committed  this  enormity  more  than  once  in  his  life.  So  far  as  we  can 
yet  discern,  the  only  “ treason  ” he  ever  practiced  toward  the  governments 
with  which  he  was  connected  consisted  in  giving  them  better  advice  than  they 
were  capable  of  acting  upon.  The  few  words  which  he  uttered  on  leaving  ttie 
council-chamber,  after  vainly  advising  Marie  Louise  to  remain  in  her  husband’s 
abode  and  maintain  the  moral  dignity  of  his  administration,  show  how  well  he 
understood  the  collapse  of  the  “ empire  ” and  its  cause : “ It  is  difficult  to  com- 
prehend such  weakness  in  such  a man  as  the  emperor.  What  a fall  is  his  ! To 


was  complimented  with  as  many  weather-cocks 
as  the  fancy  of  each  writer  suggested. 


Talleyrand. 


212 


CAKICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


give  his  name  to  a series  of  adventures^  instead  of  bestoioing  it  upon  his  cent- 
ury! When  I think  of  that,  I can  not  help  groaning.”  Then  he  added  the 
words  which  gave  liim  his  high  place  in  the  Order  of  the  Weather-cock : ‘‘But 
now  what  part  to  take  ? It  does  not  suit  every  body  to  let  himself  be  over- 
whelmed in  the  ruins  of  this  edifice.”  Particularly  it  did  not  suit  M.  de  Tal- 
leyrand, and  he  was  not  overwhelmed,  accordingly.  Considering  the  manner 
in  which  France  was  governed  during  his  career,  he  might  well  say,  “I  have 
not  betrayed  governments : governments  have  betrayed  me.” 

It  is  mentioned  by  M.  Champfleury  as  a thing  unprecedented  that  this 
weather-cock  device  did  not  wholly  lose  its  power  to  amuse  the  Parisians  for 
two  years.  The  portly  person  and  ancient  court  of  the  king,  Louis  XYIII., 
called  forth  many  caricatures  at  a later  period.  This  king  was  as  good-nat- 
ured, as  well-intentioned,  as  honorable  a Bourbon  as  could  have  been  found  in 
either  hemisphere.  It  was  not  he  who  enriched  all  languages  by  the  gift  of 
his  family  name.  It  was  not  his  obstinate  adherence  to  ancient  folly  which 
caused  it  to  be  said  that  the  Bourbons  had  forgotten  nothing  and  learned 
nothing.  Born  as  long  before  his  accession  as  1755,  he  was  an  accomplished 
and  popular  prince  of  mature  age  during  the  American  Revolution  and  the  in- 
tellectual ferment  which  followed  it  in  France.  A respectable  scholar  (for  a 
prince),  well  versed  in  literature  (for  a pifince),  a good  judge  of  art  (for  a 
prince),  of  liberal  politics  (for  a prince),  and  not  so  hopelessly  ignorant  of  state 
affairs  as  kings  and  princes  usually  were,  he  watched  the  progress  of  the  Rev- 
olution with  some  intelligence  and,  at  first,  with  some  sympathy.  Both  then 
and  in  1815  he  appears  to  have  been  intelligently  willing  to  accept  a constitu- 
tion that  should  have  left  his  family  on  the  throne  by  right  divine. 

Right  divine  was  his  religion,  to  which  he  sacrificed  much,  and,  unquestion- 
ably, would  have  sacrificed  his  life.  When  he  was  living  in  exile  upon  the 
bounty  of  the  Emperor  of  Russia,  he  said  to  his  nephew,  on  the  wedding-day 
of  that  young  Bourbon:  “If  the  crown  of  France  were  of  roses,  I would  give 
it  to  you.  It  is  of  thorns  ; I keep  it.”  And,  indeed,  a turn  in  politics  expelled 
him  soon  after,  in  the  middle  of  winter,  from  his  abode,  and  made  him  again  a 
dependent  wanderer.  In  1803,  too,  when  there  could  be  descried  no  ray  of 
hope  of  the  restoration  of  the  old  dynasty,  and  Napoleon,  apparently  lord  of 
the  world,  offered  him  a principality  in  landed  wealth  if  he  would  but  formally 
renounce  the  throne,  he  replied  in  a manner  which  a believer  in  divine  right 
might  think  sublime : 

“I  do  not  confound  M.  Bonaparte  with  those  who  have  preceded  him.  His 
valor,  his  military  talents,  I esteem ; and  I am  even  grateful  to  him  for  several 
measures  of  his  administration,  since  good  done  to  my  people  will  ever  be  dear 
to  my  heart.  But  if  he  thinks  to  engage  me  to  compromise  my  rights,  he  de- 
ceives himself.  On  the  contrary,  by  the  very  offer  he  now  makes  me  he  would 
establish  them  if  they  could  be  thought  of  as  doubtful.  I do  not  know  wliat 
are  the  designs  of  God  with  regard  to  my  house  and  myself,  but  I know  the 


FRENCH  CARICATURE. 


213 


obligations  imposed  upon  me  by  the  rank  in  which  it  was  his  pleasure  to  cause 
me  to  be  born.  A Christian,  I shall  fulfill  those  obligations  even  to  my  latest 
breath ; a son  of  St.  Louis,  I shall  know,  taught  by  his  example,  how  even  in 
chains  to  respect  myself;  a successor  of  Francis  I.,  I desire  at  least  to  be  able 
to  say,  like  him,  ‘All  is  lost  but  honor  !’  ” 

Again,  in  1814,  when  the  Emperor  Alexander  of  Russia  urged  him  to  con- 
cede so  much  to  the  popular  feeling  as  to  call  himself  King  of  the  French^  and 
to  omit  from  his  style  the  words  par  la  grace  de  Dieu^'’  he  answered : “ Di- 
vine right  is  at  once  a consequence  of  religious  dogma  and  the  law  of  the 
country.  By  that  law  for  eight  centuries  the  monarchy  has  been  hereditary  in 
my  family.  Without  divine  right  I am  but  an  infirm  old  man,  long  an  exile 
from  my  country,  and  reduced  to  beg  an  asylum.  But  by  that  right,  the  exile 
is  King  of  France.” 

He  wrote  and  said  these  “ neat  things  ” himself,  not  by  a secretary.  Among 
his  happy  sayings  two  have  remained  in  the  memory  of  Frenchmen : “ Punctu- 
ality is  the  politeness  of  kings,”  and  “ Every  French  soldier  carries  a marshal’s 
baton  in  his  knapsack.”  He  was,  in  short,  a genial,  witty,  polite  old  gentle- 
man, willing  to  govern  France  constitutionally,  disposed  to  forget  and  forgive, 
and  be  the  good  king  of  the  whole  people.  But  he  was  sixty  years  of  age, 
fond  of  his  ease,  and  ex- 
tremely desirous,  as  he 
often  said,  of  dying  in 
his  own  bed.  He  was 
surrounded  by  elderly 
persons  who  were  big- 
oted to  a Past  which 
could  not  be  resuscita- 
ted ; and  his  brother, 
heir  presumptive  to  the 
throne,  was  that  fatal 
Comte  d’ Artois  (Charles 
X.)  who  aggravated  the 
violence  of  the  Revolu- 
tion of  1789,  and  pre- 
cipitated that  of  1830, 
by  his  total  incapacity 
to  comprehend  either. 

Gradually  the  gloomy 
party  of  reaction  and 
revenge  who  surround- 
ed the  heir  presumptive 
gained  the  ascendency, 

De  L.A  ViLLEVIELLE,  CaMHAOEUES,  D’AiGRE  FeUIEEE  — A PkOMENA7)E  in 

and  the  good  - natured  the  Palais  Royal.  (Paris,  1818.) 


214 


CARICATUKE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


old  king  could  only  restrain  its  extravagance  enough  to  accomplish  his  desire 
of  dying  in  his  own  house.  Sincerely  religious,  he  was  no  bigot;  and  it  was 
not  by  his  wish  that  the  court  assumed  more  and  more  the  sombre  aspect  of 
a Jesuit  seminary.  It  is  doubtful  if  there  would  have  been  one  exception  to 
the  amnesty  of  political  offenses  if  Louis  XVIII.  had  been  as  firm  as  he  was 
kind.  The  reader  sees  a proof  of  his  good-nature  in  the  picture  on  the  pre- 
ceding page  of  Prince  Cambaceres,  who  was  Second  Consul  when  Xapoleon 
was  First  Consul,  and  Arch-chancellor  under  the  Empire,  peacefully  walking 
in  the  streets  of  Paris  with  two  of  his  friends.  This  caricature  has  a value  in 
preserving  an  excellent  portrait  of  a personage  noted  for  twenty  years  in  the 
history  of  France. 

To  the  Order  of  the  Weather-cock  succeeded,  in  1819,  when  priestly  as- 
cendency at  court  was  but  too  manifest,  the  Family  of  the  Extinguishers.  In 
the  picture  given  below,  the  reader  has  the  pleasure  of  viewing  some  of  the 
family  portraits,  and  in  another  he  sees  members  of  the  family  at  work,  re- 
kindling the  fire  and  extinguishing  the  lights.  The  fire  was  to  consume  the 
charter  of  French  liberty  and  the  records  of  science ; the  lights  are  the  men  to 


Family  of  tue  Extinguishers — Carioature  op  the  Restoration.  (Paris,  1819.) 


whom  France  felt  herself  indebted  for  liberty  and  knowledge — Buffon,  Frank- 
lin, D’Alembert,  Montesquieu,  Voltaire,  Montaigne,  Fenelon,  Condorcet,  and 
their  friends.  Above  is  the  personified  Church,  with  sword  uplifted,  menacing 
mankind  with  new  St.  Bartholomews  and  Sicilian  Vespers.  Underneath  this 
elaborate  and  ingenious  work  was  the  refrain  of  Beranger’s  song  of  1819,  en- 
titled ‘‘  Les  Missionnaires,”  which  was  almost  enough  of  itself  to  expel  the 
Bourbons : 

“Vite  soufflons,  soufflons,  morbleu! 
ilteignons  les  lumieres 
Et  rallumons  le  feu.” 

The  historian  of  that  period  will  not  omit  to  examine  the  songs  which  the 
incomparable  Beranger  wrote  during  the  reign  of  the  two  kings  of  the  Resto- 
ration. “Le  peuple,  c’est  ma  Mi  se,”  the  poet  wrote  many  years  after,  when 


FRENCH  CARICATURE. 


215 


reviewing  this  period.  The  people  were  his  Muse.  He  studied  the  people,  he 
adds,  “ with  religious  care,”  and  always  found  their  deepest  convictions  in  har- 
mony with  his  own.  He  had  been  completely  fascinated  by  the  “genius  of  ISTa- 
poleon,”  never  suspecting  that  it  was  Napoleon’s  lamentable  VKint  of  ability 
which  had  devolved  upon  the  respectable  Louis  XVHI.  an  impossible  task. 
But  he  perceived  that  the  task  loas  impossible.  There  were  two  impossibili- 
ties, he  thought,  in  the  way  of  a stable  government.  It  was  impossible  for  the 
Bourbons,  while  they  remained  Bourbons,  to  govern  France,  and  it  was  impos- 
sible for  France  to  make  them  any  thing  but  Bourbons.  Hence,  in  lending  his 
exquisite  gift  to  the  popular  cause,  he  had  no  scruples  and  no  reserves ; and  he 
freely  poured  forth  those  wonderful  songs  which  became  immediately  part  and 
parcel  of  the  familiar  speech  of  his  countrymen.  Alas  for  a Bourbon  when 
there  is  a Beranger  loose  in  his  capital ! Charles  X.  attempted  the  Bourbon 


Tue  Jesuits  at  Court.  (Paris,  1819.) 

“ Quick  ! Blow  ! blow ! Let  us  put  out  the  lights  and  rekindle  the  fires  !” 


policy  of  repression,  and  had  the  poet  twice  imprisoned.  But  he  could  not 
imprison  his  songs,  nor  prevent  his  writing  new  ones  in  prison,  which  sung 
themselves  over  France  in  a week.  Caricature,  too,  was  severely  repressed — 
the  usual  precursor  of  collapse  in  a French  government. 

The  end  of  the  Restoration,  in  1830,  occurred  with  a sudden  and  spontane- 
ous facility,  which  showed,  among  other  things,  how  effectively  Beranger  had 
sung  from  his  garret  and  his  prison.  The  old  king  in  1824  had  his  wish  of 
dying  in  his  own  bed,  and  is  said  to  have  told  his  successor,  with  his  dying 
breath,  that  he  owed  this  privilege  to  the  policy  of  tacking  ship  rather  than 
allowing  a contrary  wind  to  drive  her  upon  the  rocks.  He  advised  “ Mon- 
sieur ” to  iiursue  the  same  “ tacking  policy.”  But  Monsieur  was  Comte  d’Ar- 


216 


CAKICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


tois,  that  entire  and  perfect  Bonrbon,  crested  by  his  sixty-seven  years,  a will- 
ing victim  in  the  hands  of  Jesuit  priests.  In  six  years  the  ship  of  state  was 
evidently  driving  full  upon  the  rocks ; but,  instead  of  tacking,  he  put  on  all 
sail,  and  let  her  drive.  At  a moment  when  France  was  in  the  last  extremity 
of  alarm  for  the  portion  of  liberty  which  her  constitution  secured  her,  this  un- 
happy king  signed  a decree  which  put  the  press  under  the  control  of  the  Min- 
ister of  Police,  and  the  rest  of  the  people  of  France  under  Marshal  Marmont. 
Twenty-one  days  after,  August  16th,  1830,  the  king  and  his  suite  were  received 
on  board  of  two  American  vessels,  the  Charles  Carroll  and  the  Great  Britain^ 
by  which  they  were  conveyed  from  Cherbourg  to  Portsmouth.  “This,”  said 
the  king  to  his  first  English  visitors,  “is  the  reward  of  ray  efforts  to  render 
France  happy.  I wished  to  make  one  last  attempt  to  restore  order  and  tran- 
quillity. The  factions  have  overturned  me.”  Tlie  old  gentleman  resumed  his 
daily  mass,  and  found  much  consolation  for  the  loss  of  a crown  in  the  slaughter 
of  beasts  and  birds.  Louis  Philippe  was  King  of  the  French^  by  the  grace  of 
Lafayette  and  the  acquiescence  of  a majority  of  the  French  people. 

Caricature,  almost  interdicted  during  the  last  years  of  the  Restoration,  pur- 
sued the  fugitive  king  and  his  family  with  avenging  ridicule.  Gavarni,  then 
an  unknown  artist  of  twenty-six,  employed  by  Emile  de  Girardin  to  draw  the 
fashion  plates  of  his  new  periodical,  La  Mode,  gave  Paris,  in  those  wild  July 
days  of  1830,  the  only  political  caricatures  he  ever  published.  One  represented 
the  king  as  an  old-clothes  man,  bawling,  “ Old  coats ! old  lace !”  In  another 
he  appeared  astride  of  a lance,  in  full  flight,  in  a costume  composed  of  a 
priest’s  black  robe  and  the  glittering  uniform  of  a general ; white  bands  at  his 
neck,  the  broad  red  ribbon  of  the  Legion  of  Honor  across  his  breast,  one  arm 
loaded  with  mitres,  relics,  and  chaplets,  with  the  scissors  of  the  censer  on  the 
thumb,  on  the  other  side  the  end  of  a sabre,  and  the  meagre  legs  encompassed 
by  a pair  of  huge  jack-boots.  Another  picture,  called  the  “Lost  Balloon,”  ex- 
hibited the  king  in  the  car  of  a balloon,  with  the  same  preposterous  boots 
hanging  down,  along  with  the  Due  d’Angouleme  clinging  to  the  sides,  and  the 
duchess  crushing  the  king  by  her  weight.  The  royal  banner,  white,  and  sown 
with  fleurs-de-lis,  streamed  out  behind  as  the  balloon  disappeared  in  the 
clouds. 

These  were  the  only  political  caricatures  ever  published  by  the  man  whom 
Frenchmen  regard  as  the  greatest  of  their  recent  satirical  artists.  He  cared 
nothing  for  politics,  and  had  the  usual  attachment  of  artists  and  poets  to  the 
Established  Order.  Having  aimed  these  light  shafts  at  the  flying  king  in 
mere  gayety  of  heart,  because  every  one  else  was  doing  the  same,  he  soon  re- 
membered that  the  king  was  an  old  man,  past  seventy-three,  as  old  as  his  own 
father,  and  flying  in  alarm  from  his  home  and  country.  He  was  conscience- 
stricken.  Reading  aloud  one  day  a poem  in  which  allusion  was  made  to  a 
white-haired  old  man  going  into  exile  with  slow,  reluctant  steps,  his  voice 
broke,  and  he  could  scarcely  utter  the  lines : 


FRENCH  CARICATURE. 


217 


“Pas  d’outrage  au  vieillard  qui  s’exile  a pas  lents. 

C’est  line  piete  d’epargner  les  mines. 

Je  n’enfoncerai  pas  la  couronne  d’epines 

Que  la  main  du  malheur  met  snr  ses  cheveux  blancs.” 

As  lie  spoke  these  words  the  image  of  his  old  father  rose  vividly  before  his 
mind,  and  he  could  read  no  more.  I felt,”  said  he,  as  if  I had  been  struck 
in  the  face and  ever  after  he  held  political  caricature  in  horror. 

This  feeling  is  one  with  which  the  reader  will  often  find  himself  sympathiz- 
ing while  examining  some  of  the  heartless  and  thoughtless  pictures  which  ex- 
asperated the  elderly  piaterfamilias  who  was  now  called  to  preside  over  demor- 
alized France.  Louis  Philippe  was  another  good-natured  Louis  XVIIL,  minus 
divine  right,  a large  family.  With  all  the  domestic  virtues,  somewhat 
too  anxious  to  push  his  children  on  in  the  world,  a good  citizen,  a good  pa- 
triot, an  unostentatious  gentleman,  he  was  totally  destitute  of  those  pictur- 
esque and  captivating  qualities  which  adventurers  and  banditti  often  possess, 
but  which  wise  and  trustworthy  men  seldom  do.  In  looking  back  now  upon 
that  eighteen  years’  struggle  between  this  respectable  father  of  a family  and 
anarchy,  it  seems  as  if  France  should  have  rallied  more  loyally' and  more  con- 
siderately round  him,  and  given  him  too  the  privilege,  so  dear  to  elderly  gen- 
tlemen, of  dying  in  his  own  bed.  One-tenth  of  his  virtue  and  one-half  his  in- 
tellect had  sufficed  under  the  old  regime. 

But  since  that  lamentable  and  fatal  day  when  the  priests  wrought  upon 
Louis  XIV.  to  decree  the  expulsion  of  the  Huguenots,  who  were  the  elite  of 
his  kingdom,  France  had  been  undergoing  a course  of  political  demoralization, 
which  had  made  a constitutional  government  of  the  country  almost  impossible. 
Recent  events  had  exaggerated  the  criminal  class.  Twenty  years  of  intoxica- 
ting victory  had  made  all  moderate  success,  all  gradual  prosperity,  seem  tame 
and  flat ; and  the  reduction  of  the  army  had  set  afloat  great  numbers  of  peo- 
ple indisposed  to  peaceful  industry.  Under  the  Restoration,  we  may  almost 
say,  political  conspiracy  had  become  a recognized  profession.  The  new  king, 
pledged  to  make  the  freedom  of  the  press  ‘‘a  reality,”  soon  found  himself  face 
to  face  with  difficulties  which  Bourbons  had  invariably  met  by  mere  repres- 
sion. Republicans  and  Legitimists  were  equally  dissatisfied.  Legitimists 
could  only  wait  and  plot;  but  Republicans  could  write,  speak,  and  draw.  A 
considerable  proportion  of  the  young,  irresponsible,  and  adventurous  talent 
was  republican,  and  there  was  a great  deal  of  Bohemian  character  available 
for  that  side.  It  was  a time  when  a Louis  Xapoleon  could  belong  to  a demo- 
cratic club. 

Caricature  speedily  marked  the  “citizen  king”  for  her  own.  Xapoleon 
had  employed  all  his  subtlest  tact  during  the  last  ten  years  of  his  reign  in 
keeping  alive  in  Fi'ench  minds  the  base  feudal  feeling,  so  congenial  to  human 
indolence  and  vanity,  that  it  is  nobler  to  be  a soldier  than  to  rear  a family  and 
keep  a shop.  In  his  bulletins  we  find  this  false  sentiment  adroitly  insinuated 


218 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


in  a himdred  ways.  He  loved  to  stigmatize  the  English  as  a nation  of  shop- 
keepers. He  displayed  infinite  art  in  exalting  the  qualities  which  render  men 
willing  to  destroy  one  another  without  asking  why,  and  in  casting  contempt 
on  the  arts  and  virtues  by  which  the  waste  of  war  is  repaired.  The  homely 
habits,  the  plain  dress,  the  methodical  ways,  of  Louis  Philippe  were,  therefore, 
easily  made  to  seem  ridiculous.  He  was  styled  the  first  bourgeois  of  his  king- 
dom— as  he  was — but  the  French  people  had  been  taught  to  regard  the  word 
as  a term  of  contempt. 

Unfortunately  he  abandoned  the  policy  of  letting  the  caricaturists  alone. 
Several  French  rulers  have  adopted  the  principle  of  not  regarding  satire,  but 
not  one  has  had  the  courage  to  adhere  to  it  long.  Sooner  or  later  all  the 
world  will  come  into  the  “American  system,”  and  all  the  world  will  at  length 
discover  the  utter  impotence  of  the  keenest  ridicule  and  the  most  persistent 
abuse  against  public  men  who  do  right  and  let  their  assailants  alone.  The 
chief  harm  done  by  the  abuse  of  public  men  in  free  countries  is  in  making  it 
too  difficult  to  expose  their  real  faults.  How  would  it  be  possible,  for  exam- 
ple, to  make  the  people  of  the  United  States  believe  ill  of  a President  in  vili- 
fying whom  ingenious  men  and  powerful  journals  had  exhausted  themselves 
daily  for  years?  Nothing  short  of  testimony^  abundant  and  indisputable,  such 
as  would  convince  an  honest  jury,  could  procure  serious  attention.  From  Pres- 
ident Washington  to  President  Grant  the  history  of  American  politics  is  one 

continuous  proof  of  Mr.  Jeffer- 
son’s remark,  that  “ an  admin- 
istration which  has  nothing  to 
conceal  has  nothing  to  fear  from 
the  press.” 

When  Louis  Philippe  had 
been  a year  upon  the  throne 
appeared  the  first  number  of 
Le  Charivari^  a daily  paper  of 
four  small  pages,  conducted  by 
an  unknown,  inferior  artist — 
Charles  Philipon.  Around  him 
gathered  a number  of  Bohemi- 
an  draughtsmen  and  writers, 
not  one  of  whom  appears  then 
to  have  shared  in  the  social  or 
political  life  of  the  country,  or 
to  have  had  the  faintest  con- 
ception of  the  consideration  due  to  a fellow-citizen  in  a place  of  such  extreme 
difficulty  as  the  head  of  a governtnent.  They  assailed  the  king,  his  person,  his 
policy,  his  family,  his  habits,  his  history,  with  thoughtless  and  merciless  ridi- 
cule. A periodical  which  has  undertaken  to  supply  a cloyed,  fastidious  public 


Charles  Phimpon. 


FRENCH  CARICATURE. 


219 


with  three  liundred  and  sixty-five  ludicrous  pictures  per  annum  must  often  be 
in  desperation  for  subjects,  and  there  was  no  resource  to  Philipon  so  obvious 
or  so  sure  as  the  helpless  family  imprisoned  in  the  splendors  and  etiquette  of 
royalty.  Unfortunately  for  modern  governments,  the  people  of  Europe  were 
for  so  many  centuries  preyed  upon  and  oppressed  by  kings  that  vast  numbers 
of  people,  even  in  free  countries,  still  regard  the  head  of  a government  as  a 
kind  of  natural  enemy,  to  assail  whom  is  among  the  rights  of  a citizen.  And, 
moreover,  the  king,  the  president,  the  minister,  is  unseen  by  those  who  hurl 
the  barbed  and  poisoned  javelin.  They  do  not  see  him  shrink  and  writhe.  To 
many  an  anonymous  coward  it  is  a potent  consideration,  also,  that  the  head  of 
a constitutional  government  can  not  usually  strike  back. 

Mr.  Thackeray,  who  was  but  nineteen  when  Louis  Philippe  came  to  the 
throne,  witnessed  much  of  the  famous  contest  between  this  knot  of  caricatur- 
ists and  the  King  of  the  French  ; and  in  one  of  the  first  articles  which  he  wrote 
for  subsistence,  after  his  father’s  failure,  he  gave  the  world  some  account  of 
it.*  At  a later  period  of  his  life  he  would  probably  not  have  regarded  the 
king  as  the  stronger  party.  He  would  probably  not  have  described  the  con- 
test as  one  between  “half  a dozen  poor  artists  on  the  one  side,  and  His  Majesty 
Louis  Philippe,  his  august  family,  and  the  numberless  placemen  and  support- 
ers of  the  monarchy,  on  the  other.”  Half  a dozen  poor  artists,  with  an  unscru- 
pulous publisher  at  their  head,  who  gives  them  daily  access  to  the  eye  and  ear 
of  a great  capital,  can  array  against  the  object  of  their  satire  and  abuse  the 
entire  unthinking  crowd  of  that  capital.  A firm,  enlightened,  and  competent 
king  would  have  united  against  these  a majority  of  the  responsible  and  the  re- 
flecting. Such  a king  would  truly  have  been,  as  Mr.  Thackeray  observed,  “ an 
Ajax  girded  at  by  a Thersites.”  But  Louis  Philippe  was  no  Ajax.  He  was 
no  hero  at  all.  He  had  no  splendid  and  no  commanding  traits.  He  was  mere- 
ly an  overfond  father  and  well-disposed  citizen  of  average  talents.  He  was 
merely  the  kind  of  man  which  free  communities  can  ordinarily  get  to  serve 
them,  and  who  will  serve  them  passably  well  if  the  task  be  not  made  needlessly 
ditficult.  Hence  Philipon  and  his  “ half  a dozen  poor  artists  ” were  very  much 
the  stronger  party  — a fact  which  the  king,  in  the  sight  and  hearing  of  all 
France,  confessed  and  proclaimed  by  putting  them  in  prison. 

It  was  those  prosecutions  of  Philipon  that  were  fatal  to  the  king.  Besides 
adding  emphasis,  celebrity,  and  weight  to  the  sallies  of  Le  Charwari,  they  pre- 
saged the  abandonment  of  the  central  principle  of  the  movement  that  made 
him  king — the  freedom  of  utterance.  The  scenes  in  court  when  Philipon,  or 
his  artist,  Daumier,  was  arraigned,  were  most  damaging  to  the  king’s  dignity. 
One,  incorrectly  related  by  Thackeray,  may  well  serve  to  warn  future  potent- 
ates that  of  all  conceivable  expedients  for  the  caricaturist’s  frustration,  the 
one  surest  to  fail  is  to  summon  him  to  a court  of  justice. 


* In  the  London  and  Westminster  Review  for  April,  1839,  Article  II. 


220 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


A favorite  device  of  M.  Philipon  was  to  draw  the  king’s  face  in  the  form 
of  a huge  pear,  which  it  did  somewhat  resemble.  Amateur  draughtsmen  also 
chalked  the  royal  pear  upon  the  walls  of  Paris ; and  the  exaggerated  pears 
with  the  king’s  features  roughly  outlined  which  everywhere  met  the  eye  ex- 
cited the  mocking  laughter  of  the  idle  Parisian.  'No  jest  could  have  been  so 
harmless  if  it  had  been  unnoticed  by  the  person  at  whom  it  was  aimed,  or  no- 
ticed only  with  a smile.  But  the  Government  stooped  to  the  imbecility  of  ar- 
raigning the  author  of  the  device.  The  poire  actually  became  an  object  of 
prosecution,  and  the  editor  of  ie  Charwari  was  summoned  before  a jury  on 
a charge  of  inciting  to  contempt  against  the  person  of  the  king  by  giving  his 
face  a ludicrous  resemblance  to  one  of  the  fruits  of  the  earth.  Philipon,  when 
he  rose  to  defend  himself,  exhibited  to  the  jury  a series  of  four  sketches,  upon 
which  he  commented.  The  first  was  a portrait  of  the  king  devoid  of  exagger- 
ation or  burlesque.  ‘‘This  sketch,”  said  the  draughtsman,  “resembles  Louis 
Philippe.  Do  you  condemn  it?”  He  then  held  up  the  second  picture,  which 
was  also  a very  good  portrait  of  the  king;  but  in  this  one  the  toupet  and  the 
side-whiskers  began  to  “flow  together,”  as  M.  Champfleury  has  it  {s'ojiduler)^ 
and  the  whole  to  assume  a distant  resemblance  to  the  outline  of  a pear.  “If 
you  condemn  the  first  sketch,”  said  the  imperturbable  Philipon,  ‘‘you  must 
condemn  this  one  which  resembles  it.”  He  next  showed  a picture  in  which 
the  pear  was  plainly  manifest,  though  it  bore  an  unmistakable  likeness  to  the 
king.  Finally,  he  held  up  to  the  court  a figure  of  a large  Burgundy  pear,  pure 
and  simple,  saying,  “If  you  are  consistent,  gentlemen,  you  can  not  acquit  this 
sketch  either,  for  it  certainly  resembles  the  other  three.” 

Mr.  Thackeray  was  mistaken  in  supposing  that  this  impudent  defense  car- 
ried conviction  to  the  minds  of  the  jury.  Philipon  was  condemned  and  fined. 
He  avenged  himself  by  arranging  the  court  and  jury  upon  a page  of  Ihe  Cha- 
rwari in  the  form  of  a pear.*  ITe  and  his  artists  played  upon  this  theme  hun- 
dreds of  variations,  until  the  Government  found  matter  for  a prosecution  even 
in  a picture  of  a monkey  stealing  a pear.  The  pear  became  at  last  too  expen- 
sive a luxury  for  the  conductor  of  Le  Charivari^  and  that  fruit  was  “exiled 
from  the  empire  of  caricature.” 

Before  Louis  Philippe  had  been  three  years  upon  the  throne  there  was 
an  end  of  all  but  the  pretense  of  maintaining  the  freedom  of  press  or  pencil. 
“The  Pi-ess,”  as  Mr.  Thackeray  remarks,  “ was  sent  to  prison;  and  as  for  poor 
dear  Caiicature,  it  was  fairly  murdered.”  In  Le  Charwari  for  August  30th, 
1832,  we  read  that  Jean-Baptiste  Daumier,  for  an  equally  harmless  caricature 
of  the  king,  was  arrested  in  the  very  presence  of  his  father  and  mother,  of 
whom  he  was  the  sole  support,  and  condemned  to  six  months’  imprisonment. 
It  was  Daumier,  however,  as  M.  Champfleury  reveals,  who  had  “ served  up  the 
pear  with  the  greatest  variety  of  sauces.”  It  was  the  same  Daumier  who  after 


“ Ilistoiie  de  la  Caricature  Moderne,”p.  100,  par  Champfleury. 


FRENCH  CARICATURE. 


221 


his  release  assailed  the  advocates  and  legal  system  of  his  country  with  cease- 
less burlesque,  and  made  many  a covert  lunge  at  the  personage  who  moved 
them  to  the  fatal  absurdity  of  imprisoning  him. 

Driven  by  violence  from  the  political  field,  to  which  it  has  been  permitted 
to  return  only  at  long  intervals  and  for  short  periods,  French  caricature  has 
ranged  over  the  scene  of  human  foibles,  and  attained  a varied  development. 
Daumier  and  Philipon  conjointly  produced  a series  of  sketches  in  Le  Chari- 
vari which  had  signal  and  lasting  success  with  the  public.  The  play  of  “ Rob- 
ert Macaire,”  after  running  awhile,  was  suppressed  by  the  Government,  the 
actor  of  the  principal  part  having  used  it  as  a vehicle  of  political  burlesque. 
Le  Charivari  seized  the  idea  of  satirizing  the  follies  of  the  day  by  means  of 
two  characters  of  the  drama  — Macaire,  a cool,  adroit,  audacious  villain,  and 
Bertrand,  his  comrade,  stupid,  servile, 
and  timid. 

Philipon  supplying  the  words  and 
Daumier  executing  the  pictures,  they 
made  Macaire  undertake  every  scheme, 
practice,  and  profession  which  contain- 
ed the  requisite  ingredients  of  the  com- 
ic and  the  rascally.  The  series  extend- 
ed beyond  ninety  sketches.  Macaire 
founds  a joint-stock  charity — la  mo- 
rale  en  action,  he  explains  to  gaping  ' ^ 

Bertrand,  each  action  (share)  being 
placed  at  two  hundred  and  fifty  francs,  g 
He  becomes  a quack-doctor.  ‘‘Don’t 
trifle  with  your  complaint,”  he  says  to  % 
a patient,  as  he  gives  him  two  bottles 
of  medicine.  “ Come  to  see  me  often  ; 
it  won’t  ruin  you,  for  I make  no  charge 
for  consultations.  You  owe  me  twen- 
ty francs  for  the  two  bottles.”  The 
patient  appearing  to  be  startled  at  the 
magnitude  of  this  sum.  Dr.  Macaire 
blandly  says,  as  he  bows  him  out,  “We 
give  two  cents  for  returned  bottles.” 

He  becomes  a private  detective.  A 
lady  consults  him  in  his  office.  “ Sir,”  she  says,  “ I have  had  a thousand-franc 
note  stolen.”  “ Precisely,  madame.  Consider  the  business  done:  the  thief  is 
a friend  of  mine.”  “But,”  says  the  lady,  “can  I get  my  note  back,  and  find 
out  who  took  it?”  “Nothing  easier.  Give  me  fifteen  hundred  francs  for  my 
expenses,  and  to-morrow  the  thief  will  return  the  note  and  send  yon  his  card.” 

Every  resource  being  exhausted,  Macaire  astounds  the  despairing  Bertrand 


Egbert  Macaire  fishing  for  Suare-holders. 
(Daumier,  1S33.) 


222 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


by  saying,  “ Come,  the  time  for  mundane  things  is  past;  let  iis  attend  now  to 
eternal  interests.  Suppose  we  found  a religion?”  “A  religion!”  cries  Ber- 
trand ; “ that  is  not  so  easy.”  To  this  Macaire  replies  by  alluding  to  the  re- 
cent proceedings  of  a certain  Abbe  Chatel,  in  Paris.  “ One  makes  a pontiff 
of  himself,  hires  a shop,  borrows  some  chairs,  preaches  sermons  upon  the  death 
of  Napoleon,  upon  Voltaire,  upon  the  discovery  of  America,  upon  any  thing, 
no  matter  what.  There’s  a religion  for  you ; it’s  no  more  difficult  than  that.” 
On  one  occasion  Macaire  himself  is  a little  troubled  in  mind,  and  Bertrand 
remarks  the  unusual  circumstance.  ‘‘You  seem  anxious,”  says  Bertrand. 
“Yes,”  replies  Macaire,  “ I am  in  bad  humor.  Those  scoundrels  of  bond-hold- 
ers have  bothered  me  to  such  a point  that  I have  actually  paid  them  a divi- 
dend !”  “ What  1”  exclaims  Bertrand,  aghast,  “ a hona-Jide  dividend  ?”  “Yes, 
positively.”  “What  are  you  going  to  do  about  it?”  “I  am  going  to  get  it 
back  again.” 

The  reader  will,  of  course,  infer  that  each  of  these  pictures  was  a hit  at 
some  scoundrelly  exploit  of  the  day,  the  public  knowledge  of  which  gave  effect 
to  the  caricature.  In  many  instances  the  event  is  forgotten,  but  the  picture 
retains  a portion  of  its  interest.  One  of  Macaire’s  professions  was  that  of 
cramming  students  for  their  bachelor’s  degree.  A student  enters.  “There 
are  two  ways  in  which  we  can  put  you  through,”  says  Macaire : “ one,  to  make 
you  pass  your  examination  by  a substitute;  the  other,  to  enable  you  to  pass  it 
yourself.”  “I  prefer  to  pass  it  myself,”  says  the  young  man.  “Very  well. 
Do  you  know  Greek?”  “No.”  “Latin?”  “No.”  “All  right.  You  know 
mathematics?”  “Not  the  least  in  the  world.”  “What  do  you  know,  then?” 
“Nothing  at  all.”  “But  you  have  two  hundred  francs?”  “Certainly.” 
“Just  the  thing!  You  will  get  your  degree  next  Thursday.”  We  may  find 
comfort  in  this  series,  for  we  learn  fi'oni  it  that  in  every  infamy  which  we  now 
deplore  among  ourselves  we  were  anticipated  by  the  French  forty  years  ago. 
Macaire  even  goes  into  the  mining  business,  at  least  so  far  as  to  sell  shares. 
“We  have  made  our  million,”  says  the  melancholy  Bertrand;  “but  we  have 
engaged  to  produce  gold,  and  we  find  nothing  but  sand.”  “No  matter;  utilize 
your  capital;  haven’t  you  got  a gold  mine?”  “/Yes — but  afterward?”  “Aft- 
erward you  will  simply  say  to  the  share-holders,  ‘I  was  mistaken;  we  must  try 
again.’  You  will  then  form  a company  for  the  utilization  of  the  sand.”  Ber- 
trand, still  anxious,  ventures  to  remark  that  there  are  such  people  as  policemen 
in  the  country.  “Policemen!”  cries  Macaire,  gayly.  “So  much  the  better: 
they  will  take  shares.”  One  of  his  circular  letters  was  a masterpiece : 

“Sir, — I regret  to  say  that  yonr  application  for  shares  in  the  Consolidated  European  Incom- 
bustible Blacking  Association  can  not  be  complied  with,  as  all  the  shares  of  the  C.  E.  I.  B.  A. 
were  disposed  of  on  the  day  they  Avere  issued.  I have  nevertheless  registered  your  name,  and  in 
case  a second  series  should  be  put  forth  I shall  have  the  honor  of  immediately  giving  you  notice. 

“I  am,  sir,  etc.  Robert  Macaire,  Director.” 

“Print  three  hundred  thousand  of  these,”  says  the  director,  “ and  poison 


FRENCH  CARICATURE. 


223 


all  France  with  them.”  “ But,”  says  Bertrand,  ‘‘  we  haven’t  sold  a single  share ; 
you  haven’t  a sou  in  your  pocket,  and — ” “ Bertrand,  you  are  an  ass.  Do  as 

I tell  you.” 

Thus,  week  after  week,  for  many  a month,  did  Le  Charivari  ‘‘utilize” 
these  impossible  characters  to  expose  and  satirize  the  plausible  scoundrelism 
of  the  period.  Mr.  Thackeray,  who  ought  to  be  an  excellent  authority  on  any 
point  of  satirical  art,  praises  highly  the  execution  of  these  pictures  by  M.  Dau- 
mier. They  seem  carelessly 
done,  he  remarks ; but  it  is  the  ^ 

careless  grace  of  the  consum- 
mate artist.  He  recommends 
the  illustrator  of  “ Pickwick  ” 
to  study  Daumier.  When  we 
remember  that  Thackeray  had 
offered  to  illustrate  “ Pick- 
wick,” his  comments  upon  the 
artist  Avho  was  preferred  to 
himself  have  a certain  inter- 
est : “ If  we  might  venture  to 
give  a word  of  advice  to  anoth- 
er humorous  designer  [Hablot 
K.  Browne],  whose  works  are 
extensively  circulated,  the  il- 
lustrator of  ‘Pickwick’  and 
‘ Nicholas  Nickleby,’  it  would 
be  to  study  well  those  cari- 
catures of  M.  Daumier,  who, 
though  he  executes  very  care- 
lessly, knows  very  well  what 
he  would  express,  indicates  per- 
fectly the  attitude  and  identity 
of  the  figure,  and  is  quite  aware 
beforehand  of  the  effect  he  in- 
tends to  produce.  The  one  we 
sliould  fancy  to  be  a practiced 
artist  taking  his  ease,  the  other  a young  one  somewhat  bewildered  — a very 
clever  one,  however,  who,  if  he  would  think  more  and  exaggerate  less,  would 
add  not  a little  to  his  reputation.”  Possessors  of  the  early  editions  of  “ Pick- 
wick” will  be  tempted  to  think  that  in  this  criticism  of  Mr.  Browne’s  perform- 
ances by  a disappointed  rival  there  was  an  ingredient  of  wounded  self-love. 
The  young  author,  however,  in  another  passage,  gave  presage  of  the  coming 
Thackeray.  He  observes  that  in  France  ladies  in  difficulties  who  write  beg- 
ging letters,  or  live  by  other  forms  of  polite  beggary,  are  wont  to  style  them- 


A Husband’s  Dilemma. 

“Yes;  but  if  you  quarrel  like  that  with  all  your  wife’s  lovers, 
you  will  never  have  any  friends.” — From  Paris  Nonsensicalities 
{Baliverneries  Parisie7ines),  hy  Gavarni, 


224 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


selves  “ widows  of  the  Grand  Army.”  They  all  pretended  to  some  connection 
with  le  Grand  Homme^  and  all  their  husbands  were  colonels.  “ This  title,” 
says  the  wicked  Thackeray,  “ answers  exactly  to  the  clergyman’s  daughter  in 
England;”  and  he  adds,  “The  difference  is  curious  as  indicating  the  standard 
of  respectability.” 

Many  caricaturists  who  afterward  attained  celebrity  were  early  contributors 
to  M.  Philipon’s  much-prosecuted  periodical.  Among  them  was  “the  elegant 

Gavarni,”  who  for  thirty  years  was  the 
favorite  comic  artist  of  Paris  roues  and 
dandies — himself  a roue  and  dandy.  At 
this  period,  according  to  his  friend,  The- 
ophile  Gautier,  he  was  a very  handsome 
young  man,  with  luxuriant  blonde  curls, 
always  fashionably  attired,  somewhat  in 
the  English  taste,  neat,  quiet,  and  pre- 
cise, and  “ possessing  in  a high  degree 
the  feeling  for  modern  elegances.”  He 
was  of  a slender  form,  which  seemed 
laced  in,  and  he  had  the  air  of  being 
carefully  dressed  and  thoroughly  appoint- 
ed, his  feet  being  effeminately  small  and 
daintily  clad.  In  short,  he  was  a dandy 
of  the  D’Orsay  and  N.  P.  Willis  period. 
For  many  years  he  expended  the  chief 
force  of  his  truly  exquisite  talent  in  in- 
vesting vice  with  a charm  which  in  real 
life  it  never  possesses.  Loose  women, 
who  are,  as  a class,  very  stupid,  very  vul- 
gar, most  greedy  of  gain  and  pleasure, 
and  totally  devoid  of  every  kind  of  in- 
teresting quality,  he  endowed  with  a 

Housekeeping.  . x*  u 

“Gracious,  Dorothy,  I have  forgotten  the  meat  grace  and  Wit,  a lertlllty  ot  I’eSOUrce,  an 

^ ^ ...  ^ ^ii’Y  elegance  of  demeanor,  never  found 

“Have  you,  indeed?  But  you  didn’t  forget  the  . . 

biscuitfor  your  bird,  egotist!  No  matter!  No  mat-  except  ill  honorable  WOmeil  reared  ill 
ter!  If  there  is  nothing  in  the  house  for  my  cat,  I , ^ ^ i tt 

shall  give  her  your  bird,  I shall!” — From  Impres-  honorable  honies.  He  Was  the  great 

sions  de  Menage,  hy  Gay m-m.  master  of  that  deadly  school  of  French 

satiric  art  which  finds  all  virtuous  life  clumsy  or  ridiculous,  and  all  abominable 
life  graceful  and  pleasing. 

Albums  of  this  kind  are  extant  in  which  married  men  are  inrariahly  repre- 
sented as  objects  of  contemptuous  pity,  and  no  man  is  graceful  or  interesting 
except  the  sneaking  scoundrel  who  has  designs  upon  the  integrity  of  a house- 
hold. Open  the  “ Musee  pour  Rire,”  for  example.  Here  is  a little  family  of 
husband,  wife,  and  year-old  child  in  bed,  just  awake  in  the  morning,  the  wife 


FRENCH  CARICATURE. 


225 


caressing  the  child,  and  the  husband  looking  on  with  admiring  fondness.  This 
scene  is  rendered  ridiculous  by  the  simple  expedient  of  making  the  wife  and 
child  hideously  ugly,  and  the  fond  father  half  an  idiot.  Another  picture  shows 
the  same  child,  with  a head  consisting  chiefly  of  mouth,  yelling  in  the  middle 
of  the  night,  while  the  parents  look  on,  imbecile  and  helpless.  Turn  to  tlie 
sketches  of  the  masked  ball  or  the  midnight  carouse,  and  all  is  elegant,  becom- 
ing, and  delightful.  If  the  French  caricatures  of  the  last  thirty  years  do  really 
represent  French  social  life  and  French  moral  feeling,  we  may  safely  predict 
that  in  another  generation  France  will  be  a German  province ; for  men  capable 
of  maintaining  the  independence  of  a nation  can  not  be  produced  on  the  Ga- 
varnian  principles. 

Marriage  and  civilization  we  might  almost  call  synonymous  terms.  Mar- 
riage was  at  least  the  greatest  conquest  made  by  primitive  man  over  himself, 
and  the  indispensable  preliminary  to  a higher  civilization.  Nor  has  any  mode 
yet  been  discovered  of  rearing  full-formed  and  efficient  men  capable  of  self-con- 
trol, patriotism,  and  high  principle,  except  the  union  of  both  parents  striving 
for  that  end  with  cordial  resolution  longer  than  an  average  life-time.  It  is 
upon  this  most  sacred  of  all  institutions  that  the  French  caricaturists  of  the 
Gavarni  school  pour  ceaseless  scorn  and  contempt.  As  I write  these  lines,  my 
eyes  fall  upon  one  of  the  last  numbers  of  a comic  sheet  published  in  Paris,  on 
the  flrst  page  of  which  there  is  a picture  which  illustrates  this  propensity.  A 
dissolute-looking  woman,  smoking  a cigarette,  is  conversing  with  a boy  in  but- 
tons who  has  applied  for  a place  in  her  household.  “How  old  are  you?”  she 
asks.  “Eleven,  madame.”  “And  your  name?”  “Joseph!”  Upon  this  in- 
nocent reply  the  woman  makes  a comment  which  is  truly  comic,  but  very  Ga- 
varnian : “ So  young,  and  already  he  calls  himself  Joseph  1” 

Among  the  heaps  of  albums  to  be  found  in  a French  collection  we  turn 
with  particular  curiosity  to  those  which  satirize  the  child  life  of  France.  Ga- 
varni’s  celebrated  series  of  “ Enfants  Terribles  ” has  gone  round  the  world,  and 
called  forth  child  satire  in  many  lands.  The  presence  of  children  in  his  pict- 
ures does  not  long  divert  this  artist  from  his  ruling  theme.  One  of  his  ter- 
rible children,  a boy  of  four,  prattles  innocently  to  his  mother  in  this  strain: 
“Nurse  is  going  to  get  up  very  early,  now  that  you  have  come  home,  mamma. 
Goodness  1 while  you  were  in  the  country  she  always  had  her  breakfast  in  bed, 
and  it  was  papa  who  took  in  the  milk  and  lighted  the  fire.  But  wasn’t  the 
coffee  jolly  sweet,  though !”  Another  alarming  boy  of  the  same  age,  who  is 
climbing  up  his  father’s  chair  and  wearing  his  father’s  hat,  all  so  merry  and 
innocent,  discourses  thus  to  the  petrified  author  of  his  being:  “Who  is  Mr. 
Albert?  Oh,  he  is  a gentleman  belonging  to  the  Jardin  des  Plantes,  who 
comes  every  day  to  explain  the  animals  to  mamma;  a , large  man  with  mus- 
taches, whom  you  don’t  know.  He  didn’t  come  to-day  until  after  they  had 
shut  up  the  monkeys.  You  ought  to  have  seen  how  nicely  mamma  entertained 
him.  Oh  dear !”  (discovering  a bald  place  on  papa’s  pate)  “ you  have  hardly 

15 


226 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


finy  hair  upon  the  top  of  your  head,  papa !”  In  a third  picture  both  parents 
are  exhibited  seated  side  by  side  upon  a sofa,  and  the  terrible  boy  addresses 
Ids  mother  thus:  Mamma,  isn’t  that  little  mustache  comb  which  Cornelia 

found  in  your  bedroom  this  morning  for  me?”  Another  sketch  shows  us  fa- 
ther, mother,  and  terrible  boy  taking  a walk  in  the  streets  of  Paris.  A dandy, 
in  the  likeness  of  Gavarni  himself,  goes  by,  with  his  cane  in  his  mouth,  and  his 
face  fixed  so  as  to  seem  not  to  see  them.  But  the  boy  sees  him^  and  bawls  to 
his  mother : Mamma  ! mamma  ! that  Monsieur  du  Luxembourg  ! — you  know 

him — the  one  you  said  was  such  a great  friend  to  papa — he  has  gone  by  witli- 


A POTTLTK3E  FOR  T WO— SYMPATHY  ANH  ECONOMY. — Fioui  Impressio7is  dc  Menage,  by  Gavarni. 

out  saluting ! I su[)j>ose  the  reason  is,  he  don’t  know  how  to  behave.”  An- 
other picture  presents  to  view  a little  girl  seated  on  a garden  bench  eating 
nuts,  and  talking  to  a young  man:  “The  rose  which  you  gave  to  mamma?” 
“Yes,  yes.”  “The  one  you  nearly  broke  your  neck  in  getting?  Let  me  see. 
Oh,  my  cousin  Nat  stuck  it  in  the  tail  of  Matthew’s  donkey.  How  mamma 
did  laugh  ! Got  any  more  nuts?”  The  same  appalling  girl  imparts  a family 
secret  to  her  tutor:  “Mamma  wrote  to  M.  Prosper,  and  j^apa  read  the  letter. 
Oh,  wasn’t  papa  angry,  thougli ! And  all  because  she  had  spelled  a word 
wrong.”  A mother  hearing  a little  girl  say  the  catechism  is  a subject  which 


FRENCH  CARICATURE. 


227 


one  would  suppose  was  not  available  for  the  purposes  of  a Gavarni,  but  he 
finds  even  that  suggestive.  “ Come,  now,  pay  attention.  What  must  we  do 
when  we  have  sinned  [/^ecAe]  ?”  To  which  the  terrible  child  replies,  playing 
unconsciously  upon  the  word  phhe  (sinned),  which  does  not  differ  in  sound 
iv  om  peche  (fished),  “When  we  have  pechef  Wait  a moment.  Oh  ! we  go 
back  to  the  White  House  with  all  the  fish  in  the  basket,  which  my  nurse  eats 
with  Landerneau.  He  is  a big  soldier  who  has  white  marks  upon  his  sleeve. 
iVnd  I eat  my  share,  let  me  tell  you  !” 

It  is  thus  that  the  first  caricaturist  of  France  “utilized”  the  innocence  of 
childhood  when  Louis  Philippe  was  King  of  the  French. 

There  is  a later  series  by  Randon,  entitled  “ Messieurs  nos  Fils  et  Mesde- 
moiselles  nos  Filles,”  which 
exhibits  other  varieties  of 
French  childhood,  some  of 
which  are  inconceivable  to 
persons  not  of  the  “ Latin 
race.”  It  has  been  said  that 
in  America  there  are  no 
longer  any  children ; but 
nowhere  among  us  are  there 
young  human  beings  who 
could  suggest  even  the  bur- 
lesque of  precocity  such  as 
M.  Randon  presents  to  us. 

We  have  no  boys  of  ten  who 
go  privately  to  the  hero  of 
a billiard  “ tournament”  and 
request  him  with  the  politest 
gravity,  cap  in  hand,  to  “ put 
him  up  to  some  points  of  the 
game  for  his  exclusive  use.” 

We  have  no  boys  of  eight 
who  stand  with  folded  arms 
before  a sobbing  girl  of  sev- 
en and  address  her  in  words 
like  these : “ Be  reasonable, 
then,  Amelia.  The  devil ! 

People  can’t  be  always  lov- 
ing one  another.”  We  have  no  errand-boys  of  eight  who  offer  their  services 
to  a young  gentleman  thus : “ For  delivering  a note  on  the  sly,  or  getting  a 
bouquet  into  the  right  hands,  monsieur  can  trust  to  me.  I am  used  to  little 
affairs  of  that  kind,  and  I am  as  silent  as  the  tomb.”  We  have  no  little  boys 
in  belt  and  apron  who  say  to  a bearded  veteran  of  half  a dozen  wars:  “You 


Parisian  “ Shoo,  Fly  !” 


“Captain,  I am  here  to  ask  your  permission  to  fight  a duel.” 

“ What  for,  and  with  whom  ?” 

“With  Saladin,  the  trumpeter,  who  has  so  far  forgotten  himself 
as  to  call  me  a moucheron"  (little  fiy). — From  Messieurs  nos  Fils  et 
Mesdemoiselles  nos  Filles,  by  Randon,  Paris. 


228 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


don’t  know  your  happiness.  For  ray  part,  give  rae  a beard  as  long  as  yours, 
and  not  a woman  in  the  world  should  resist  me !”  We  have  no  little  boys  who 

in  the  midst  of  a fio:ht 
with  fists,  one  having  a 
black  eye  and  the  other  a 
bloody  nose,  would  pause 
to  say : ‘‘At  least  we  don’t 
fight  for  money,  like  the 
English.  It  is  for  glory 
that  we  fight.”  We  have 
no  little  boys  who,  on 
starting  for  a ride,  wave 
aside  the  admonitions  of 
the  groom  by  telling  him 
that  they  know  all  about 
managing  a horse,  and 
what  they  want  of  him  is 
simply  to  tell  them  where 
in  the  I^ois  they  will  be 
likely  to  meet  most  “Am- 
azons.” No,  nor  in  all  the 
length  and  breadth  of  English-speaking  lands  can  there  be  found  a small  boy 
who,  on  being  lectured  by  his  father,  would  place  one  hand  upon  his  heart,  and 
lift  the  other  on  high,  and  say,  “ Papa,  by  all  that  I hold  dearest,  by  my  honor, 
by  your  ashes,  by  any  thing  you  like,  I swear  to  change  my  conduct !”  All 
these  things  are  so  i-emote  from  our  habits  that  the  wildest  artist  could  not 
conceive  of  them  as  passable  caricature. 

The  opprobrious  words  in  use  among  French  boys  would  not  strike  the 
boys  of  New  York  or  London  as  being  very  exasperating.  M.  Randon  gives 
us  an  imaginary  conversation  between  a very  small  trumpeter  in  gorgeous 
uniform  and  a gamin  of  the  street.  Literally  translated,  it  would  read  thus : 
“ Look  out,  little  fiy,  or  you  will  get  yourself  crushed.”  To  which  the  street 
boy  replies,  “ Descend,  then,  species  of  toad : I will  make  you  see  what  a little 
fly  is!”  On  the  other  hand,  if  we  may  believe  M.  Randon,  French  boys  of  a 
very  tender  age  consider  themselves  subject  to  the  code  of  honor,  and  hold 
themselves  in  readiness  to  accept  a challenge  to  mortal  combat.  A soldier 
of  ten  years  appears  in  one  of  this  series  with  his  arm  in  a sling,  and  he  ex- 
plains the  circumstance  to  his  military  comrade  of  the  same  age:  “It’s  all  a 
sham,  my  dear.  I’ll  tell  you  the  reason  in  strict  confidence : it  is  to  make  a 
certain  ])erson  of  my  acquaintance  believe  that  I have  fought  for  her.”  The 
boys  of  France,  it  is  evident,  are  nothing  if  not  military.  Most  of  the  young 
veterans  biases  exhibited  in  these  albums  are  in  uniform. 

An  interesting  relic  of  those  years  when  Frenchmen  still  enjoyed  some  sem- 


Tukee  ! (From  “Arithmetic  Illustrated,”  by  Cham.) 


FRENCH  CARICATURE. 


229 


blance  of  liberty  to  discuss  subjects  of  national  and  European  concern  is  Ga- 
varni’s  series  of  masterly  sketches  burlesquing  the  very  idea  of  private  citizens 
taking  an  interest  in  public  affairs.  This  is  accomplished  by  the  device  of 
giving  to  all  the  men  who  are  talking  politics  countenances  of  comic  stupidity. 
An  idiot  in  a blouse  says  to  an  idiot  in  a coat,  ‘‘Poland,  don’t  you  see,  will 
never  forgive  your  ingratitude !”  An  idiot  in  a night-cap  says  to  an  idiot 
bare-headed,  with  ludicrous  intensity,  “And  when  you  have  taken  Lombardy, 
then  what?”  Nothing  can  exceed  the  skill  of  the  draughtsman  of  this  series, 
except  the  perversity  of^the  man,  to  whom  no  human  activity  seemed  becom- 
ing unless  its  object  was  the  lowest  form  of  sensual  pleasure.  But  the  talent 
which  he  displayed  in  this  album  was  immense.  It  was,  if  I may  say  so, 
frightful ; for  there  is  nothing  in  our  modern  life  so  alarming  as  the  power 
which  reckless  and  dissolute  talent  has  to  make  virtuous  life  seem  provincial 
and  ridiculous,  vicious  life  graceful  and  metropolitan. 


230 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

LATER  FRENCH  CARICATURE. 


DURIXG  the  twenty  years  of  Louis  Xapoleon,  political  caricature  being 
extinguished,  France  was  inundated  with  diluted  Gavarni.  Any  wretch 
who  drew  or  wrote  for  the  penny  almanacs,  sweltering  in  his  Mansard  on  a 

franc  a day,  could  produce  a certain  ef- 
fect by  representing  the  elegant  life  of 
his  country,  of  which  he  knew  nothing, 
to  be  corrupt  and  sensual.  Pick  up  one 
of  these  precious  works  blindfold,  open 
it  at  random,  and  you  will  be  almost 
certain  to  light  upon  some  penny-a-line 
calumny  of  French  existence,  with  a 
suitable  picture  annexed.  I have  just 
done  so.  The  “ Almanach  Comique  ” foi- 
ls 69,  its  twenty -eighth  year,  lies  open 
before  me  at  the  page  devoted  to  the 
month  of  August.  My  eye  falls  upon  a 
picture  of  a loosely  dressed  woman  gaz- 
ing fondly  upon  a large  full  purse  sus- 
pended upon  the  end  of  a walking-stick, 
and  underneath  are  the  words,  ^^Elle  ne 
tarde  pas  d se  reapprwoiser^''  She  does 
not  delay  to  retame  herself,  the  verb 
being  the  one  applied  to  wild  beasts. 
There  is  even  a subtle  deviltry  in  the  syl- 
lable re,  implying  that  she  has  rebelled 
against  her  destiny,  but  is  easily  enough 
brought  to  terms  by  a bribe.  The  read- 
ing matter  for  the  month  consists  of  the 
following  brief  essay,  entitled  ‘^August 
— the  Virgin  How  to  go  for  a month 

to  the  sea-shore  during  the  worst  of  the 
dog-days.  Hii-e  a chalet  at  Cabourg 
for  madame,  and  a cottage  on  the  beach  of  Trouville  for  mademoiselle.  The 


Two  Attitudes. 

“ With  your  air  of  romantic  melancholy,  you  could 
succeed  with  some  women.  For  my  part,  I make  my 
conquests  with  drums  beating  and  matches  lighted.’’ 
— From  Messieurs  nos  Fils  et  Mesdemoiselles  nos  Filles, 
by  Randon,  Paris. 


LATER  FRENCH  CARICATURE. 


231 


transit  between  those  two  places  is  accomplished  per  omnibus  in  an  hour. 
That  is  very  convenient.  Breakfast  with  Mademoiselle ; dine  with  Madame. 
This  double  existence  is  very  expensive,  but  as  it  is  the  most  common^  we  are 
compelled  to  examine  it  in  order  to  establish  a basis  for  the  expenditures  of 
the  twelve  months.”  Is  it  not  obvious  that  this  was  “ evolved  ?”  Does  it  not 
smell  of  a garlicky  Mansard  ? And  have  not  all  modern  communities  a com- 
mon interest  in  discrediting  anonymous  calumny?  It  were  as  unjust,  doubt- 
less, to  judge  the  frugal  people  of  France  by  the  comic  annuals  as  the  good- 
natured  people  of  England  by  the  Saturday  Review. 

It  is  evident,  too,  that  the  French  have  a totally  different  conception  from 


The  Den  of  Lions  at  the  Opera.  (From  hes  Differents  Publics  de  Paris,  by  Gustave  Dure.) 


ourselves  of  what  is  fit  and  unfit  to  be  uttered.  They  ridicule  our  squeamish- 
ness; we  stand  amazed  at  their  indelicacy.  Voltaire,  who  could  read  his  “Pu- 
celle”  to  the  Queen  of  Prussia,  her  young  daughter  being  also  present  and 
seen  to  be  listening,  was  astounded  in  London  at  the  monstrous  indecency  of 
“Othello;”  and  English  people  of  the  same  generation  were  aghast  at  the 
license  of  the  Parisian  stage.  M.  Marcelin,  a popular  French  caricaturist  of 
to-day,  dedicates  an  album  containing  thirty  pictures  of  what  he  styles  Un 
certain  Monde  to  his  mother!  We  must  not  judge  the  productions  of  such  a 
people  by  standards  drawn  from  other  than  “ Latin  ” sources. 

Among  the  comic  artists  who  began  their  career  in  Louis  Philippe’s  time. 


232 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


under  the  inspiration  of  Philipon  and  Daumier,  was  a son  of  the  Comte  de 
Noe,  or,  as  we  might  express  it.  Count  Noah,  a peer  of  France  when  tliere 
were  peers  of  France.  Amedee  de  Noe,  catching  the  spirit  of  caricature  while 
he  was  still  a boy  (he  was  but  thirteen  when  Xe  Charivavi  was  started),  soon 
made  his  pseudonym,  Cham,  familiar  to  Pai-is.  Cham  being  French  for  Shem, 
it  was  a happy  way  of  designating  a son  of  Count  Noah.  From  that  time  to 
the  present  hour  Cham  has  continued  to  amuse  his  countrymen,  pouring  forth 
torrents  of  sketches,  which  usually  have  the  merit  of  being  harmless,  and  are 
generally  good  enough  to  call  up  a smile  upon  a face  not  too  stiffly  wrinkled 
with  the  cares  of  life.  He  is  almost  as  prolific  of  comic  ideas  as  George  Cruik-- 
shank,  but  his  pictures  are  now  too  rudely  executed  to  serve  any  but  the  most 
momentary  purpose.  When  a comic  album  containing  sixty-one  pictures  by 
Cham  is  sold  in  Paris  for  about  twelve  cents  of  our  currency,  the  artist  can 
not  bestow  much  time  or  pains  upon  his  work.  The  comic  almanac  quoted 
above,  containing  one  hundred  and  eighty-three  pages  and  seventy  pictures, 
costs  the  retail  purchaser  ten  cents. 

Gustave  Dore,  now  so  renowned,  came  from  Strasburg  to  Paris  in  1845,  a 
boy  of  thirteen,  and  made  his  first  essays  in  art,  three  years  after,  as  a carica- 
turist in  the  Journal  pour  Rire.  But  while  he  scratched  trash  for  his  dinner, 
he  reserved  his  better  hours  for  the  serious  pursuit  of  art,  which,  in  just  ten 
years,  delivered  him  from  a vocation  in  which  he  could  never  have  taken  pleas- 
ure. His  great  subsequent  celebrity  has  caused  the  publication  of  several  vol- 
umes of  his  comic  work.  It  abounds  in  striking  ideas,  but  the  pictures  were 
executed  with  headlong  haste,  to  gratify  a transient  public  feeling,  and  keep 
the  artist’s  pot  boiling.  His  series  exhibiting  the  Different  Publics  of  Paris  is 
full  of  pregnant  suggestions,  and  there  are  happy  thoughts  even  in  his  “His- 
toire  de  la  Sainte  Russie,”  a series  published  during  the  Crimean  war,  though 
most  of  the  work  is  crude  and  hasty  beyond  belief. 

In  looking  over  the  volumes  of  recent  French  caricature,  we  discover  that  a 
considerable  number  of  English  words  have  become  domesticated  in  France. 
France  having  given  us  the  words  of  the  theatre  and  the  restaurant,  has  adopt- 
ed in  return  several  English  words  relating  to  out-of-door  exercises:  Turf, 
ring,  steeple-chase,  box  (in  a stable),  jockey,  jockey-club,  betting,  betting-book, 
handicap,  race,  racer,  four-in-hand,  mail-coach,  sport,  tilbury,  dog-cart,  tandem, 
pickpocket,  and  revolver.  Rosbif,  bifstek,  and  “choppe”  have  long  been  fa- 
miliar. “Milord”  is  no  longer  exclusively  used  to  designate  a sumptuous  En- 
glishman, but  is  applied  to  any  one  who  expends  money  ostentatiously.  Gen- 
tleman, dandy,  dandyism,  flirt,  flirtation,  puff,  cockney,  and  cocktail  are  words 
that  would  be  recognized  by  most  Parisians.  A French  writer  quotes  the 
phi-ase  “hero  of  two-hemispheres,”  appli(*d  to  Lafayette,  as  a specimen  of  the 
^^puff'’'"  superlative.  “Othello”  has  become  synonymous  with  “jealous  man;” 
and  the  sentence,  “ That  is  the  question,”  from  “ Hamlet,”  seems  to  have  ac- 
quired currency  in  France.  Cab,  abbreviated  a centui-y  ago  from  the  French 


LATER  FRENCH  CARICATURE. 


233 


(cabriolet),  has  been  brought  back  to  Paris,  like  the  head  of  a fugitive  decapi- 
tated in  exile. 

The  recent  events  in  France,  beginning  with  the  outbreak  of  the  war  with 
Prussia,  have  elicited  countless  caricatures  and  series  of  caricatures.  The 
downfall  of  the  ‘‘Empire,”  as  it  was  called,  gave  the  caricaturists  an  opportu- 
nity of  vengeance  which  they  improved.  A citizen  of  FTew  York  possesses  a 
collection  of  one  tliousand 
satirical  pictures  publish- 
ed in  Paris  during  the 
war  and  under  the  Com- 
mune. A people  who  sub- 
mit to  a despised  usurper 
are  not  likely  to  be  mod- 
erate or  decent  in  the  ex- 
pression of  their  contempt 
when,  at  length,  the  tyrant 
is  no  longer  to  be  feared. 

It  was  but  natural  that 
the  French  court  should 
insult  the  remains  of  Lou- 
is XIV.,  to  whom  living 
it  had  paid  honors  all 
but  divine;  for  it  is  only 
strength  and  valor  that 
know  how  to  be  either 
magnanimous  or  dignified 
in  the  moment  of  deliver- 
ance. Many  of  the  people 
of  Paris,  when  they  heard 
of  the  ridiculous  termi- 
nation near  Sedan  of  the 
odious  fiction  called  the 
Empire, behaved  like  boys 
just  rid  of  a school-mas- 
ter whom  they  have  long 
detested  and  obeyed.  Of  course  they  seized  the  chalk  and  covered  all  the 
blackboards  with  monstrous  pictures  of  the  tyrant.  The  flight  of  his  wife 
soon  after  called  forth  many  scandalous  sketches  similar  to  those  which  dis- 
graced Paris  when  Marie  Antoinette  was  in  prison  awaiting  the  execution  of 
her  husband  and  her  own  trial.  Many  of  these  burlesques,  however,  were  fair 
and  legitimate.  The  specimen  given  on  the  next  page,  entitled  “ Partant  pour 
la  Syrie,”  which  appeared  soon  after  the  departure  of  Eugenie  and  her  ad- 
visers, was  a genuine  hit.  It  was  exhibited  in  every  window,  and  sold  wher- 


234 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


ever  in  France  the  victorious  Germans  were  not.  A member  of  the  American 
legation,  amidst  the  rushing  tide  of  exciting  events  and  topics,  chanced  to  save 
a copy,  from  which  it  is  liere  reduced. 

Among  the  “ albums  ” of  siege  sketches,  we  come  upon  one  executed  by  the 
veterans  Cham  and  Daumier,  the  same  Henri  Daumier  whom  Louis  Philippe 
imprisoned,  and  Thackeray  praised,  forty  years  ago.  In  this  collection  we  see 
Parisian  ladies,  in  view  of  the  expected  bombardment,  bundled  up  in  huge  bags 


of  cotton,  leading  lap-dogs  protected  in  the  same  manner.  An  ugly  Prussian 
touches  off  a bomb  aimed  at  the  children  in  the  Jardin  du  Luxembourg.  King 
William  decorates  crutches  and  wooden  legs  as  ‘‘New-year’s  presents  for  his 
people.”  An  apothecary  sells  a plaster  “ warranted  to  prevent  wounds,  pro- 
vided the  wearer  never  leaves  his  house.”  A workman  goes  to  church  for  the 
first  time  in  his  life,  and  gives  as  a reason  for  so  un workman-like  a proceeding 
that  “ a man  don’t  have  to  stand  in  line  for  the  blessed  bread.”  A volunteer 


LATER  FRENCH  CARICATURE. 


235 


goes  on  a sortie  with  a pillow  under  his  waistcoat  “ to  show  the  enemy  that 
we  have  plenty  of  provisions.”  All  these  are  by  the  festive  Cham. 

Daumier  does  not  jest.  He  seems  to  have  felt  that  Louis  Napoleon,  like  a 
child-murderer,  was  a person  far  beneath  caricature — a creature  only  fit  to  be 
destroyed  and  hurried  out  of  sight  and  thought  forever.  Amidst  the  dreary 
horrors  of  the  siege,  Henri  Daumier  could  only  think  of  its  mean  and  guilty 
cause.  One  of  his  few  pictures  in  this  collection  is  a row  of  four  vaults,  the 
first  bearing  the  inscription,  “ Died  on  the  Boulevard  Montmartre,  December 
2d,  1851;”  the  second, Died  at  Cayenne;”  the  third,  “Died  at  Lambessa;” 
the  fourth,  “Died  at  Sedan,  1870.”  But  even  then  Daumier,  true  to  the  voca- 
tion of  a patriotic  artist,  dared  to  remind  his  countrymen  that  it  was  they  who 
had  reigned  in  the  guise  of  the  usurper.  A wild  female  figure  standing  on  a 
field  of  battle  points  with  one  hand  to  the  dead,  and  with  the  other  to  a vase 
filled  with  ballots,  on  which  is  printed  the  word  Oui.  She  cries,  These  hilled 
those  P’’ 

During  the  Commune  the  walls  of  Paris  were  again  covered  with  drawings 
and  lithographs  of  the  character  which  Frenchmen  produce  after  long  periods 
of  repression : Louis  Napoleon  crucified  between  the  two  thieves,  Bismarck 
and  King  William ; Thiers  in  the  pillory  covered  and  surrounded  with  oppro- 
brious inscriptions;  Thiers,  Favre,  and  M‘Mahon  placidly  looking  down  from 
a luxurious  upper  room  upon  a slain  mother  and  child  ghastly  with  blood  and 
wounds;  landlords,  lean  and  hungry,  begging  for  bread,  while  fat  and  rosy  la- 
borers bask  idly  in  the  .sun;  little  boy  Paris  smashing  his  playthings  (Trochu, 
Gambetta,  and  Rochefort)  and  crying  for  the  moon ; “ Paris  eating  a general 
a day  ;”  Queen  Victoria  in  consternation  trying  to  stamp  out  the  horrid  centi- 
pede, Internationcd^  while  “Monsieur  John  Boule,  Esquire,”  stands  near  with 
the  habeas-corpus  act  in  his  hand;  naked  France  pressing  Rochefort  to  her 
bosom ; and  hundreds  more,  describable  and  indescribable. 

It  remains  to  give  a specimen  of  recent  French  caricature  of  another  kind. 
Once  more,  after  so  many  proofs  of  its  impolicy,  tlie  Government  of  France 
attempts  to  suppress  such  political  caricature  as  is  not  agreeable  to  it,  while 
freely  permitting  the  publication  of  pictures  flagrantly  indecent.  At  no  for- 
mer period,  not  even  in  Voltaire’s  time,  could  the  French  press  have  been  more 
carefully  hedged  about  with  laws  tending  to  destroy  its  power  to  do  good, 
and  increase  its  power  to  do  harm.  The  Government  treats  the  press  very 
much  after  the  manner  of  those  astute  parents  who  forbid  their  children  to 
see  a comedy  of  Robertson  or  a play  of  Shakspeare,  but  make  it  up  to  them 
by  giving  them  tickets  to  the  variety  show.  A writer  familiar  with  the  sub- 
ject gives  us  some  astounding  details: 

“There  exist  at  present,”  he  remarks,  “sixty-eight  laws  in  France,  all  in- 
tended to  suppress,  curtail,  weaken,  emasculate,  and  even  to  strangle  newspa- 
pers ; but  not  one  single  law  to  foster  them  in  their  dire  misfortune.  If  any 
private  French  gentleman  wishes  to  establish  a newspaper,  he  must  first  write 


236 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


to  the  Prefet  de  Police,  on  paper  of  a certain  size  and  duly  stamped,  and  give 
this  functionary  notice  that  he  intends  to  establish  a newspaper.  His  signature 
has,  of  course,  to  be  countersigned  by  the  Maire.  But  if  the  paper  our  friend 
wishes  to  establish  is  purely  literary,  lie  has  first  to  make  his  declaration  to 
the  police,  who  rake  up  every  information  that  is  possible  about  the  unfortu- 
nate projector.  After  that,  the  Ministere  de  I’lnterieur  institutes  another 
searching  inquiry,  and  these  two  take  seven  or  eight  months  at  least.  When 
the  enquete  and  the  contre-enquUe  are  ended,  the  avis  favorable  of  the  whole 
Ministry  is  necessary  before  the  paper  can  be  published.  Another  six  months 
to  wait  yet;  but  this  is  not  all.  Our  would-be  newspaper  proprietor  or  editor 
possesses  now  the  right  of  publishing  his  paper;  but  he  has  not  yet  the  right 

to  sell  it.  In  order  to  ob- 
tain this,  he  must  begin 
anew  all  his  declarations 
and  attempts,  so  that  his 
purely  literary  paper  may 
be  sold  at  all  the  ordinary 
book -sellers’  shops.  But 
if  he  wishes  it  to  be  sold 
in  the  streets — or,  in  other 
words,  in  the  kiosques  — 
he  must  address  himself 
to  another  office  ad  hoc, 
and  then  the  Commissaire 
de  Police  sends  the  answer 
of  the  Prefet  de  Police  to 
the  unfortunate  proprietor, 
editor,  or  publisher,  who  by 
this  time  must  be  nearly  at 
his  wits’  end. 

But  even  this  is  not  all. 
If  the  unhappy  projector  proposes  to  illustrate  his  paper,  his  labors  are  still  far 
from  ending.  “He  must,”  continues  the  writer,  “ obtain,  of  course,  the  per- 
mission of’ the  Ministere  de  I’lnterieur  for  Paris,  or  of  the  prefects  for  the 
provinces.  The  Ministere  asks  for  the  opinion  of  the  Governor  of  Paris,  who 
asks,  in  his  turn,  for  the  opinion  of  the  Bureau  de  Censure,  a body  of  gentle- 
men working  in  the  dark,  and  which,  to  the  eye  of  the  obtuse  foreigner,  ap- 
pears only  established  to  prevent  any  political  insinuations  to  be  made,  but  to 
allow  the  filthiest  drawings  to  be  publicly  exposed  for  sale,  and  the  most  in- 
decent innuendoes  to  be  uttered  on  the  stage  or  in  novels.  The  Censure  de- 
mands, under  the  penalty  of  seizing,  forbidding,  and  bringing  before  the  court, 
tliat  every  sketch  or  outline  shall  be  submitted  to  it.  When  this  is  done,  and 
the  Censure  finds  nothing  to  criticise  in  it,  it  requires  further  that  the  draw- 


LATER  FRENCH  CARICATURE. 


23V 


ing,  when  finished,  be  anew  laid  before  it,  and,  if  the  drawing  be  colored,  it 
must  be  afresh  inspected  after  the  dan- 
gerous paints  have  been  smirched  on. 

When  our  happy  editor  wishes  to  pub- 
lish the  caricature  or  the  portrait  of 
any  one,  he  can  not  do  so  unless  he  has 
the  permission  of  the  gentleman  or 
lady  whose  likeness  he  wishes  to  pro- 
duce.” 

Such  was  the  measure  of  freedom 
enjoyed  in  the  French  republic  gov- 
erned by  soldiers.  But  this  elaborate 
system  of  repression  can  be  both 
evaded  and  turned  to  account  by  the 
caricaturist.  During  the  last  two  or 
three  years,  a writer  who  calls  himself 
Touch atout  has  been  amusing  Paris  by  a series  of  satirical  biographies,  each 
preceded  by  a burlesque  portrait.  But  occasionally  the  Censure  refuses  its 
consent  to  the  insertion  of  the  portrait.  The  son  of  Louis  Kapoleon  was  one 
individual  whom  the  Censure  thus  endeavored  to  protect.  Observe  the  result. 
Instead  of  exhibiting  to  the  people  of  Paris  a harmless  picture  representing 
the  head  of  the  unfortunate  young  man  mounted  upon  a pair  of  diminutive 
legs,  Touchatout  prints  at  the  head  of  his  biographical  sketch  the  damaging 
burlesque  subjoined  : 

EEPUBLIQUE  FKANOAISE. 

LIBERTY,  EQUALITY,  FRATERNITY, 

AND  CENSURE. 

THE  PUBLICATION  OF  THE  PORTRAIT  OF 

Velocipede  IV. 

HAS  BEEN  FORBIDDEN  BY  THE  CENSURE. 


IT  CAN  BE  FOUND  AT  ALL  THE  PHOTOGRAPHERS’. 


I translate  the  burlesque  biography  that  follows  the  .above.  Tt  may  serve 


238 


CAEICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


also  as  a specimen  of  the  new  literary  commodity  of  which  the  Parisians  seem 
so  fond,  and  for  which  a name  has  been  invented — blague — which  means  amus- 
ingly malign  gossip. 

“Velocipede  IV.  (N’apoleon -Eugene- Louis  - Jean  - Joseph,  Prince  Impe- 
rial, more  commonly  known  by  the  name  of  :)  born  at  Paris,  March  16th, 
1856.  He  is  the  son  of  Napoleon  III.  and  of  the  Empress,  Eugenie  de 
Monti  jo. 

“ Here  a parenthesis.  The  Trombinoscope  has  often  been  accused  of  bru- 
tality. When  we  traced  the  profile  of  the  ex-empress,  the  cry  was  that  we  had 
no  consideration  even  for  women.  We  replied  that,  in  our  eyes,  sovereigns 
were  no  more  women  than  were  the  she  petroleum-throwers.  To-day  there 
will  not  be  wanting  people  to  say  that  we  do  not  spare  children ; and  we 
shall  reply,  as  we  have  often  said  before,  that  sons  are  not  responsible  for  the 
crimes  of  their  fathers  until  the  day  when  they  set  up  a claim  to  profit  by 
them.  If,  during  the  two  years  that  the  Trombinoscope  has  plied  his  voca- 
tion, we  have  not  aimed  a shot  at  the  young  hero  of  Sarrebruck,  it  is  precise- 
ly because  childhood  inspires  respect  in  us.  If  this  youth,  when  consulted 
upon  his  calling,  had  replied,  ‘My  desire  is  to  be  an  architect  or  a shoe- 
maker,’ we  should  have  had  nothing  to  say.  But  mark:  scarcely  has  he 
ceased  to  be  a child  when,  on  being  questioned  as  to  his  choice  of  a trade,  he 
answers, ‘I  wish  to  be  emperor.’  Oh,  indeed  ! The  son  of  Napoleon  HI.  has 
entered  upon  his  career;  he  is  a child  no  more;  and  the  Trombinoscope  re- 
enters into  all  his  rights. 

“We  said,  then,  that  Eugene -Napoleon  was  born  March  16th,  1856.  The 
doctor  who  received  him  perceived  that  he  had  upon  la  f esse  clroite  a mass  of 
odd  little  red  marks.  Upon  examining  closely  this  phenomenon,  he  perceived 
that  these  marks  were  a representation  of  the  bombardment  of  the  house 
Sallanvrouze  in  December,  1851,  upon  the  Boulevard  Montmartre.  All  was 
there:  the  intrepid  artillery  of  Canrobert,  smashing  the  shop -windows  and 
pulverizing  a newspaper  stand  ; the  nurses  disemboweled  upon  the  seats ; the 
bootblack  on  the  corner  having  his  customer’s  leg  carried  away  from  between 
his  hands,  etc.,  etc. 

“The  empress  during  her  pregnancy  had  read  Victor  Hugo’s  ‘Napoleon 
the  Little,’  and  had  been  much  struck  with  the  chapter  in  which  the  coup 
<rkat  is  so  well  related.  They  concealed  from  the  people  this  tattooing — this 
far  too  significant  trade-mark — and  they  placed  the  new-born  child  in  a cradle 
with  the  ribbon  of  the  Legion  of  Honor  around  his  neck.  The  high  digni- 
taries then  advanced  to  prostrate  themselves  before  the  august  infant,  who 
sucked  his  thumb,  and  they  relate,  in  this  connection,  in  the  blatant  clap-trap 
History  of  Napoleon  HI.,  that  one  of  the  courtiers  narrowly  escaped  falling 
into  disgrace  by  appearing  stupefied  to  see  the  Prince  Imperial  decorated  at 
the  age  of  fifteen  hours.  Happily  he  recovered  himself  in  time,  and  replied  to 
the  emperor,  who  had  remarked  his  surprise  : 


LATER  FRENCH  CARICATURE. 


239 


“ ‘ Sire ! I am  indeed  astonished  that  His  Highness  is  only  commander.’ 

“ To  the  age  of  eighteen  months,  the  Prince  Imperial  did  nothing  remark- 
able; but,  dating  froni  that  moment,  he  became  a veritable  prodigy.  Along 
with  his  first  pair  of  trousers,  his  father  ordered  two  dozen  witticisms  of  the 
editors  of  Figaro,  These  sallies  at  once  went  the  rounds  of  the  domestic 
press,  and  the  Prince  Imperial  had  not  reached  his  sixth  year  when  he  passed, 
in  the  rural  districts,  for  having  all  the  wit  which  his  mother  lacked.  Thus, 
in  full  Figaro,,  appeared  one  morning  a crayon  drawing  attributed  to  the 
Prince  Imperial,  at  the  age  when  as  yet  he  only  executed  in  sepia  upon  the 
flaps  of  his  shirt. 

‘‘This  marvel  of  precocity  astonished  all  men  who  had  need  of  a sub-pre- 
fectship  or  a place  in  the  tobacco  excise;  and  this  to  such  a point  that  they 
were  not  in  the  least  surprised  when,  during  the  Exhibition  of  1867,  a reporter 
prepared  his  left  button -hole  to  receive  the  recompense  due  to  the  brave  by 
printing — in  the  self-same  Figaro,  by  heavens! — that  the  little  prince,  then 
eleven  years  of  age,  had  discussed  with  engineers  of  experience  the  strong  and 
weak  points  of  all  the  wheel  work  in  the  grand  hall  of  machinery. 

“The  years  which  followed  were  for  the  young  phenomenon  only  a succes- 
sion of  triumphs  of  the  same  calibre,  until  the  day  when  his  father  declared 
that,  in  order  to  complete  his  imperial  education,  nothing  was  wanting  to  him 
but  to  learn  to  ride  the  velocipede. 

“ It  need  not  be  said  that  he  learned  this  noble  art,  like  all  the  others,  by 
just  blowing  upon  it. 

“ Meanwhile,  Eugene-^N’apoleon  had  achieved  various  grades  in  the  army. 
Hamed  Corporal  in  the  Grenadiers  of  the  Guard  at  the  age  of  twenty -two 
months,  one  evening  when  he  had  not  cried  for  being  put  to  bed  at  eight 
o’clock,  he  had  been  made  successively  pioneer,  sergeant,  sergeant-major,  and 
adjutant  of  the  same  corps.  When  he  made  some  difficulties  about  swallow- 
ing his  iodide  of  potassium  in  the  morning,  they  promised  him  promotion,  and 
that  encouraged  him.  From  glass  to  glass,  he  won  the  epaulet  of  sublieuten- 
ant; and  at  the  moment  when  the  war  with  Prussia  broke  out  he  had  just  de- 
served the  epaulet  of  lieutenant  by  letting  them  give  him,  without  crying,  an 
injection  with  salt,  which  inspired  him  with  profound  horror. 

“At  the  very  beginning  of  the  war,  his  father  took  him  to  the  Prussian 
frontier,  in  order  to  make  him  pass  by  his  side  under  triumphal  arches  into 
Berlin,  which  the  army  five  times  ready  of  Marshal  Leboeuf  was  to  enter  with- 
in four  days  at  the  very  latest. 

“At  the  combat  of  Sarrebruck,  that  brilliant  military  pantomime  which  the 
Emperor  caused  to  be  performed  under  the  guise  of  a parade,  the  Prince  Im- 
perial became  the  admiration  of  Europe  by  picking  up  on  the  field  of  battle  ‘a 
bullet  ivliich  had  fallen  near  him^  said  the  dispatch  of  Napoleon  to  Eugenie. 
^From  the  pocket  of  a mischievous  staff  officer,^  history  will  add. 

“Since  our  disasters,  the  Prince  Imperial  grows  and  stuffs  himself  in  exile. 


240 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


with  some  devoted  servants  whose  salaries  go  on  as  before,  and  a Spanish 
mother  who  teaches  him  to  love  France  as  the  most  lucrative  of  the  monarch- 
ical tobacco-excise  offices  in  Europe. 

“ Recently  the  Prince  Imperial,  for  the  first  time,  declared  his  pretension  to 
the  throne  by  thanking  the  eight  Bonapartists,  who  had  hired  a smoking  com- 
partment upon  the  Northern  Line  in  order  to  present  their  compliments — and 
their  bill — on  the  occasion  of  the  15th  of  August.  That  was  the  first  act  of  a 
Pretender,  the  cutting  of  whose  teeth  still  torments  him,  and  whose  new  panta- 
loons become  too  short  at  the  end  of  eight  days.  It  was  this  which  decided 
us  to  write  his  rather  meagre  biography. 

“As  to  his  person,  the  Prince  Imperial  is  a perfect  type  of  a slobbering  as- 
pirant of  the  eighth  order.  In  his  exterior,  at  least,  he  does  not  seem  to  have 
derived  much  from  his  father;  but  he  has  the  empty,  vain,  and  silly  expression 
of  his  mother.  He  represents  sufficiently  well  one  of  those  married  boobies 
whose  insignificance  condemns  them  to  live  upon  their  income  in  a little  pro- 
vincial city,  working  six  hours  a day  their  part  of  third  cornet  in  a raw  phil- 
harmonic society,  while  their  wives  at  home  make  cuckolds  of  them  with  the 
officers  of  the  garrison. 

“SUPPLEMENTARY  NOTICE. 

Dates  to  he  supplied  by  the  collectors  of  the  Tromhinoscope. 

“ Eugene-Napoleon,  attaining  his  majority  March  16th,  ISVV,  demands  a 
settlement  from  his  mother.  She  confesses  to  him  that  of  his  maternal  fortune 
there  remain  but  thirty-two  francs.  ‘What  has  become,  then,’  he  asks, ‘of  ail 
the  fund  which,  during  the  twenty  years  of  papa’s  empire,  was  produced  by  the 
exemption  money  of  the  conscripts  for  whom  substitutes  were  not  obtained, 
by  the  buttons  which  were  wanting  to  the  gaiters,  and  the  gaiters  which  were 
wanting  to  the  buttons?’  ‘What  has  become  of  it?’  said  the  Empress.  ‘Do 
you  suppose  that,  during  these  seven  years  past,  I have  maintained  our  French 
journals  with  my  old  chignons?’  Eugene-Napoleon  replied  to  his  mother: 
• Then,  if  I have  no  longer  a sou  with  which  to  take  Mandarine  to  the  races, 
hand  me  one  of  papa’s  riding-jackets  that  I may  make  a descent  at  Boulogne, 

to  dethrone  Louis  Philippe  II.  He  makes  a descent  at  Boulogne,  the  

18 — , with  five  drunken  men  and  the  little  Conneau,  all  disguised  as  circus  staff 
officers.  They  put  him  on  his  trial;  he  is  convicted  the 18 — ; is  pardon- 
ed the 18 — ; repeats  the  performance  the 18 — . The  Republic  hav- 
ing turned  out  Louis  Philippe  II.,  Eugene-Napoleon  re-enters  France  the 

18 — as  simple  citizen.  The  republicans,  who  are  always  just  so  foolish,  permit 

him  to  be  elected  deputy  the 18 — , and  president  the -18 — . He  seats 

himself  upon  the  Republic  December  2d,  18 — , and  re-establishes  the  Empire 
the  — “ 18 — . The  social  decomposition  resumes  its  course.  Velocipede 

IV.  marries  the 18 — , a circus  girl.  The  moral  scale  continues  to  rise: 

Blanche  d’Antigny  and  Cora  Pearl  are  ladies  of  honor  at  the  Tuileries.  The 


LATEK  FRENCH  CARICATURE. 


241 


18 — , at  the  moment  when  Velocipede  IV.  is  about  to  engage  in  a war 

with  Prussia,  which  he  thinks  will  consolidate  his  throne,  but  which,  consider- 
ing the  organization  of  our  artillery,  threatens  to  extend  the  German  frontiers 
as  far  as  Saint- Ouen.  France  stops  the  drain  of  those  ruinous  imitations, 
drives  out  the  Emperor,  and  again  proclaims  the  Republic.  This  time,  a thing 
wholly  unexpected,  some  republicans  are  found  who,  after  having  energetically 
swept  France  clean  of  all  that  appertains  to  former  systems,  whether  pretend- 
ers, office-holders,  spies,  etc.,  etc.,  push  their  logic  even  to  the  point  of  bolting 
the  door  inside,  in  order  not  to  be  interfered  with  in  their  loyal  endeavor.  This 
device,  so  simple,  but  by  which  we  have  passed  three  times  in  a century  with- 
out seeing  it,  succeeds  to  admiration ; and  at  length  it  is  announced,  the 

19 — , that  Velocipede  IV.,  after  having  been  by  turns,  at  London,  keeper  of  a 
thirteen -sous  bazaar,  pickpocket,  circus  performer,  magnetizer,  and  dealer  in 
lead-pencils,  dies  in  the  flower  of  his  age  from  the  effects  of  a disease  which 
his  father  did  not  contract  while  presiding  at  a meeting  of  his  cabinet.” 

With  this  specimen  of  blague  we  may  leave  the  caricaturists  of  France  to 
fight  it  out  with  La  Censure. 


16 


242 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


CHAPTER  XX. 

COMIC  ART  IN  GERMANY. 

UPON  the  news-stands  in  St.  Louis,  Chicago,  Cincinnati,  Philadelphia,  Mil- 
waukee, Xew  York,  and  other  cities,  we  find  the  comic  periodicals  of 
Germany,  particularly  the  Fliegende  Blatter  of  Berlin,  and  the  Beilage  der 
Fliegenden  Blatter  of  Munchen,  papers  resembling  Punch  in  form  and  design. 
The  American  reader  who  turns  over  their  leaves  can  not  but  remark  the  mild- 
ness of  the  German  jokes.  Compared  with  the  tremendous  and  sometimes 
ghastly  efforts  of  the  dreadful  Funny  Man  of  the  American  press,  the  jests  of 
the  Germans  are  as  lager-beer  to  the  goading  cocktail  ” and  the  maddening 
“ smash  !”  But,  then,  they  are  delightfully  innocent.  Coming  from  the  French 
comic  albums  and  papers  to  those  of  the  Germans,  is  like  emerging,  after  sun- 
rise, from  a masquerade  ball,  all  gas,  rouge,  heat,  and  frenzy,  into  a field  full 
of  children  playing  till  the  bell  rings  for  school.  Nevertheless,  the  impression 
remains  that  an  extremely  mild  joke  suffices  to  amuse  the  German  reader  of 
comic  periodicals. 

The  pictured  jests,  as  in  Punchy  are  the  attractive  feature.  Observe  the 
infantile  simplicity  of  a few  of  these,  taken  almost  at  random  from  recent  vol- 
umes of  the  papers  just  mentioned : 

, Two  young  girls,  about  twelve,  are  sitting  upon  a bench  in  a public  garden. 
Two  dandies  walk  past,  who  are  dressed  alike,  and  resemble  one  another. 
“ Tell  me,  Fanny,”  says  one  of  the  girls,  ‘‘  are  not  those  two  gentlemen  broth- 
ers ?”  This  is  the  reply : ‘‘  One  of  them  is,  I know  for  certain ; but  I am  not 
quite  sure  about  the  other.” 

A strapping  woman,  sooty,  wearing  a man’s  hat,  and  carrying  a ladder  and 
brushes,  is  striding  along  the  street.  The  explanation  vouchsafed  is  the  fol- 
lowing: “The  very  eminent  magistrate  has  determined  to  permit  the  widow 
of  the  meritorious  chimney-sweep,  Spazzicammino,  to  continue  the  business.” 

A silly- looking  gentleman  is  seen  conversing  with  a lady  upon  whom  he 
has  called,  while  a number  of  cats  are  playing  about  the  room.  “ Why  have 
you  so  many  cats?”  he  asks.  The  lady  replies:  “Well,  you  see,  my  cook 
kept  giving  warning  because  I locked  up  the  milk  and  meat,  and  so  I got  the 
cats  as  a pretext.” 

Two  ladies  are  conversing.  The  elder  says:  “Why  do  you  quarrel  with 
your  husband  so  often  ?”  The  younger  replies : “ Oh,  you  know  the  making- 
up  is  extremely  entertaining,  and  getting  good  again  is  so  lovely !” 


COMIC  AKT  IN  GERMANY. 


243 


A scene  in  a cheap  book-store.  A young  lady  says  to  the  clerk:  “I  want 
a Lovers’  Letter-writer — a cheap  one.”  ‘‘Here,  miss?”  “How  much  is  it?” 
“ Eighteen  kreutzers.”  “ That  is  too  clear  for  me.”  “ Oh,  but  I beg  your 
pardon,  miss,  if  you  take  the  Let- 
ter-writer, you  get  Schiller’s  works 
thrown  in ; and  if  a young  lady  buys 
at  this  shop  a tract  upon  potatoes, 
she  gets  the  whole  of  Goethe  into  the 
bargain.” 

The  steps  of  a church  are  exhibit- 
ed, with  a clergyman  assisting  an  old 
woman  down  to  the  sidewalk.  A 
long  explanation  is  given,  as  follows : 

“Parson  Friedel,  a thoroughly  good 
fellow,  though  not  a particularly  good 
preacher,  goes  on  Sunday  morning  to 
church  to  edify  his  flock.  On  his  ar- 
rival he  sees  an  old  dame  trying  in 
vain  to  get  up  the  icy  steps.  ‘ Oh, 
sir,’  she  says,  not  recognizing  the  holy 
man,  ‘ pray  help  me  up.’  He  does  so, 
and  when  they  have  reached  the  top 
she  thanks  him,  and  adds,  ‘ Oblige 
me  also,  dear  sir,  by  telling  me  who 
preaches  to-day?’  ‘Parson  Friedel,’ 
he  courteously  replies.  ‘ Oh,  sii*, 
then  help  me  down  again.’  The  par- 
son, smiling,  rejoins:  ‘Quite  right;  I 
wouldn’t  go  in  myself  if  I were  not 
obliged  to.’  ” 

A very  tall  man  is  bending  over 
to  light  his  cigar  at  an  exceedingly 
short  man’s  cigar.  “ What !”  says 
the  short  man,  “ you  wonder  that 
your  light  goes  out  so  often  ? That 
is  owing  to  the  rarity  of  the  at- 
mosphere in  the  elevated  regions  in 
which  your  cigar  moves.” 

A stable  scene,  in  which  figure  a 
horse,  an  officer,  and  a horse-dealer.  The  officer  says:  “The  horse  I bought 
of  you  yesterday  has  a fault ; he  is  lame  in  the  off  fore-leg.”  The  dealer  re- 
])lies:  “Ah  ! and  do  you  call  that  a fault?  I call  it  a misfortune.” 

A clergyman’s  study.  Enter  a very  ill-favored  pair,, to- whom  the  clergy- 


Evoldtion  of  the  Piano,  according  to  Darwin. 
(Berlin,  1S72.) 


244 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


man  says:  ‘^So  you  wish  to  be  married,  do  you?  Well,  have  you  maturely 
reflected  upon  it?”  The  man  replies:  “Yes,  we  have  asked  beforehand  about 
how  much  it  will  cost.” 

A compartment  of  a railway  carriage,  in  which  are  two  passengers,  one  of 
whom  has  two  little  pigs  under  the  seat,  and  the  other  a small  curly  lap-dog 

in  his  lap.  Conductor  (standing  out- 
side). “Have  you  a dog’s  ticket?” 
“ No.”  “ Then  get  one.”  “ But  my 
dog  troubles  no  one.”  ‘“That  makes 
no  difference.”  “But  this  country- 
man here  has  two  pigs  in  the  car- 
riage.” “ No  matter  for  that ; we  have 
a rule  about  dogs,  but  none  for  pigs.” 
A boat  on  a Swiss  lake  with  a par- 
ty about  to  lunch.  A lady,  in  great 
alarm,  says  to  the  boatman:  “Stop, 
for  Heaven’s  sake,  stop ! You  told 
the  people,  when  we  got  in,  that  your 
boat  would  sink  if  it  were  heavier  by 
half  an  ounce.  But  if  these  men  eat  all 
that,  we  shall  go  to  the  bottom  for  a 
certainty.” 

A restaurant  scene.  A customer, 
handing  back  to  a waiter  a plate  of 
meat,  says:  “Waiter,  this  meat  is  so 
tough  I can’t  chew  it.”  Waiter.  “ Excuse  me,  I will  bring  you  a sharp  knife 
immediately.” 

An  aged  clergyman  parting  with  a young  soldier  about  to  join  the  army, 
says:  “Augustus,  you  now  enter  upon  a military  career.  Take  care  of  your 
health,  and  mind  you  lead  a good  life.”  Augustus.  “ Same  to  you,  pastor.” 

A boy  up  a tree,  and  a gentleman  standing  under  it.  “I’ll  teach  you  to 
steal  my  plums,  you  scoundrel ! I’ll  tell  your  father.”  ‘‘What  do  I care?  My 
father  steals  himself.”  This  picture  is  headed,  “ Good  Fruit.” 

A family  seated  at  dinner.  Mother.  “ But,  Elsie,  naughty  girl ! what  hor- 
rid manners  you  have ! You  eat  only  the  cream,  and  leave  the  dumplings.” 
Elsie.  “ Why,  papa  can  eat  them.” 

A man  and  woman  of  Jewish  cast  of  countenance  are  seen  at  a pawn- 
broker’s sale.  Woman.  “Well,  what  will  you  buy  for  mother’s  birthday?” 
Man.  “A  handsome  dress,  I think.”  Woman.  “How  unpractical  you  are! 
She  can  only  live  three  or  four  years  at  most;  and  even  in  that  short  time  a 
dress  will  be  in  rags.  Let  us  buy  for  the  dear  old  soul  a pair  of  silver  candle- 
sticks. Then  when  she  dies  we  shall  have  them  back  again.” 

Under  the  heading  of  “Cheap  Illumination,”  we  are  presented  with  a pict- 


A CORPOKAT.,  WHO  18  AHOTJT  TO  BE  PROMOTED,  PRE- 
SENTS Himself  before  the  Major. 

“ Can  you  read  ?”  “At  your  service,  major.”  “ Can 
you  write?”  “At  your  service,  major.”  “Can  you 
cipher?”  “At  your  service,  major.”  “What  are  you 
in  civil  life  ?”  “Doctor  of  philosophy  and  lecturer  in 
the  university. — Fliegende  Blatter,  Berlin,  1872. 


COMIC  ART  IN  GERMANY. 


245 


lire  of  an  Esquimau  with  a lighted  wick  held  in  his  mouth,  and  the  following 
explanation:  “The  Esquimaux,  as  is  well  known,  live  on  the  fat  of  the  reindeer, 
the  seal,  and  the  whale.  This  suggested  to  the  arctic  traveler,  Warnie,  the  idea 
of  drawing  a wick  through  the  body  of  one  of  the  natives,  and  in  this  way  ob- 
taining a brilliant  train-oil  lamp  for  the  long  winter  nights.” 

Two  noble  ladies  chatting  over 
their  tea : “ Only  think,  my  dear,  we 
are  obliged  to  discharge  our  man.” 

“Why?”  “Oh,  he  begins  to  be  too 
familiar.  What  do  you  think?  I 
saw  him  cleaning  the  boots,  and  I 
discovered,  to  my  horror,  that  he  had 
my  husband’s  boots,  my  son’s,  and 
his  own,  all  mixed  together !” 

A lady  hurrying  home  from  an  ap- 
proaching shower,  dragging  her  lit- 
tle boy  with  her.  Boy.  “ But,  moth- 
er, why  should  we  be  so  afraid  of  the 
thunder  - storm  ? Those  hay  - makers 
yonder  don’t  care.”  Mother.  “ Child, 
they  are  poor  people,  who  don’t  at- 
tract the  lightning  as  we  do,  who  al- 
ways have  gold  and  ready  cash  about 
us.” 

A scene  in  a police  court,  the 
magistrate  questioning  a witness : 

“ You  are  a carpenter,  are  you  not?” 

“I  am.”  “You  were  at  work  in  the 
vicinity  of  the  place  where  the  scuffle 
occurred?”  “I  was.”  “How  far  from  the  two  combatants  were  you  stand- 
ing?” “Thirty-six  feet  and  a half,  Rhenish  measure.”  “How  can  you  speak 
so  exactly?”  “Because  I measured  it.  I thought  that  most  likely  some  fool 
would  be  asking  about  that  at  the  trial.” 

These  may  suffice  as  examples  of  the  average  comic  force  of  the  German 
joke.  A very  few  of  the  above — perhaps  four  or  five  in  all — might  have  been 
accepted  by  the  editors  of  Punch,  with  the  requisite  changes  of  scene  and  dia- 
lect. We  must  also  bear  in  mind  that  the  dialect  counts  for  much  in  a comic 
scene,  as  we  can  easily  perceive  by  changing  a Yorkshire  bum})kin’s  language 
in  a comedy  into  London  English.  Half  of  the  laugh -compelling  power  of 
some  of  the  specimens  given  may  lie  in  peculiarities  of  dialect  and  grammar 
of  which  no  one  but  a native  of  the  country  can  feel  the  force.  A few  of  the 
more  vivid  and  telling  examples  are  given  in  the  accompanying  illustrations. 

The  glimpses  of  German  life  which  the  comic  artists  afford  remind  us  that 


A Boi.n  CojMpakison.  (Berlin,  1873.) 


Pastor’s  Wife.  “But  half  the  cracknels  are  scorched 
to-day.” 

Cracknel  Man.  “ So  they  are.  But,  yon  see,  I have  the 
same  luck  as  the  pastor:  all  his  sermons  do  not  turn 
out  equally  good.” 


246  CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 

the  children  of  men  are  of  one  family,  the  several  branches  of  which  do  not 
differ  from  one  another  so  mucli  as  we  are  apt  to  suppose.  German  fathers, 
too,  as  we  see  in  these  pictures,  stand  amazed  at  the  quantity  of  property  their 
daughters  can  carry  about  with  them  in  the  form  of  wearing  apparel.  A do- 
mestic scene  exhibits  a young  lady  putting  the  last  fond  touches  to  her  toilet, 
while  a clerk  presents  a long  bill  to  the  father  of  the  family,  who  throws  his 

hands  aloft,  and  exclaims,  Oh,  blessed 
God ! Thou  who  clothest  the  lilies  of 
the  field,  provide  also  for  my  daughter, 
at  least  during  the  Carnival !” 

Germany,  not  less  than  England  and 
America,  laughs  at  “ the  modern  moth- 
er,” who  dawdles  over  Goethe,  and  is 
“ literary,”  and  wears  eyeglasses,  while 
delegating  to  bottles  and  goats  her 
peculiar  duties.  An  extravagant  bur- 
lesque of  this  form  of  self-indulgence 
presents  to  view  a baby  lying  on  its 
back  upon  a centre-table,  its  head  upon 
a pillow,  taking  nourishment  direct  from 
a goat  standing  over  it;  the  mother  sit- 
ting near  in  a luxurious  chair,  read- 
ing. Enter  the  family  doctor,  who 
cries,  aghast,  “ Why,  what’s  this,  baron- 
ess? I did  not  mean  it  in  that  loay ! 
A she -goat  is  not  a wet-nurse.”  To 
which  the  baroness  languidly  replies, 
looking  from  her  book,  “Why  not?” 
And  here  is  the  German  version  of 
PimchbS  widely  disseminated  joke  upon 
marriage : “ If  you  are  going  to  be 
married,  my  son,  I will  give  you  some 
good  advice.”  “And  what  is  it?”  “Better  not.” 

The  Woman’s  Rights  agitation  gave  rise  to  burlesques  precisely  similar  in 
inane  extravagance  to  those  which  appeared  in  England,  America,  and  France. 
We  have  the  “Students  of  the  Future,”  a series  representing  buxom  lasses 
in  dashing  bloomers,  smoking,  dissecting,  fighting  duels,  and  hunting.  The 
young  lady  who  has  on  her  dissecting-table  a bearded  “subject”  is  leaning 
against  it  nonchalantly,  drinking  a pot  of  beer,  and  another  young  lady  is 
using  the  pointed  heel  of  her  fashionable  boot  as  a tobacco-stopper.  Here,  too, 
is  the  husband  who  comes  lioine  late,  and  whose  wife  icill  sit  up  for  him. 

The  great  servant-girl  question  is  also  up  for  discussion  in  Germany,  after 
occupying  womankind  for  three  thousand  years.  Here  is  a group  of  servants 


Strict  Discipline  in  the  Field — Major  going  the 
Rounds  at  Night. 


Sentinel.  “Who  goes  there?  Halt!”  (Major,  not 
regarding  the  summous,  the  soldier  tires,  and  miss- 
es.) 

Major.  “Three  days  iu  the  guard -house  for  your 
bad  shooting.” 


COMIC  ART  IN  GERMANY. 


247 


Ahead  of  Time. 


The  aged  and  extremely  absent-minded  prince  of  a little  territory  visits  the  public  institutions  every  yeai\ 
On  leaving  the  high  school,  he  says  to  the  teacher : “ I am  very  much  pleased  with  every  thing,  only  the  soup 
is  a little  too  thin.” 

Teacher  (aside  to  aid-de-camp).  “What  does  his  Highness  mean  by  thin  soup?” 

Aid-de-camp.  “It  is  only  a slip.  His  Highness  should  have  said  that  in  the  hospital.” 

talking  together.  ^'Yesterday  I gave  warning,”  says  one.  “Why?”  asks  an- 
other; “the  wages  are  high,  the  food  is  good,  and  yon  have  every  Sunday  out. 
The  reply  is  : “Well,  you  must  know,  my  Fritz  don’t  like  it.  Mistress  buys 
her  wine  at  the  wine-merchant’s,  where  I get  the  bottles  all  sealed.  Don’t  you 
see  ?” 

In  the  same  spirit,  as  every  reader  knows,  the  drawing-room  judges  the 
kitchen  in  other  lands  besides  Germany,  and  is  supported  in  its  judgment  by 
satiric  artists  who  evolve  preposterously  impossible  servants  from  the  shallows 
of  their  own  ignorance. 

Rarely,  indeed,  does  a German  caricaturist  presume  to  meddle  with  poli- 
tics, and  still  more  rarely  does  he  do  it  with  impunity.  The  Germans,  with  all 
their  excellences,  seem  wanting  in  the  spirit  that  has  given  us  our  turbulent, 
ilkorganized  freedom.  Perhaps  their  beer  has  offered  too  ready  and  cheap  a 
resource  against  the  chafing  resentments  that  tyranny  excites;  for  a narcotized 
brain  is  indolently  submissive  to  whatever  is  very  difficult  of  remedy.  Coffee 
and  tobacco  keep  the  Turk  a slave.  The  wisest  act  of  Louis  Napoleon’s  usur- 
pation was  his  giving  a daily  ration  of  tobacco  to  every  soldier.  Woe  to  des- 
])ots  when  men  cease  to  dull  and  pollute  their  brains  with  tobacco  and  alcohol ! 
There  will  then  be  a speedy  end  put  to  the  system  that  takes  five  millions  of 
the  elite  of  Europe  from  industry,  and  consigns  them  to  the  business  of  sup- 


248 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


pression  and  massacre.  Whatever  may  be  the  cause,  Germany  has  scarcely 
yet  begun  her  apprenticeship  to  freedom ; and,  consequently,  her  public  men 
lose  the  inestimable  advantage  of  seeing  their  measures  as  the  public  sees  them. 
Let  us  hope  that  the  German  people  may  be  able  to  appropriate  part  of  our 


passing  through  the  stage  of  ignorant  suffrage  and  thief -politicians.  Mean- 
while there  is  no  political  caricature  in  Germany. 

As  a set-off  to  this  defect,  I may  mention  again  the  absence  from  the  Ger- 
man comic  periodicals  of  the  class  of  subjects  which,  at  present,  seems  to  be 
the  sole  inspiration  of  French  art  and  French  humor.  It  is  evident  that  the'“ 
Germans  do  not  regard  illicit  love  as  the  chief  end  of  man.  The  reason  of 
the  superior  decency  of  German  satire  is,  probably,  that  German  methods  of 


volve  twenty  thousand.  Convent  education  is  probably  the  cause  of  French 
indecency,  simply  from  its  leaving  the  mind  dull  and  the  imagination  active. 


ively  religious,  the  same  morbid  tendency  in  the  pupils  that  we  notice  in 
French  art  and  drama.  The  French  are  right  in  not  trusting  their  convent- 
bred  girls  out  of  sight.  The  convent- bred  boys,  who  can  not  be  so  closely 
watched,  show  the  untrustworthiness  of  moral  principle  which  is  not  fortified 
by  intelligent  conviction.  The  Germans,  from  their  better  mental  culture  and 
greater  variety  of  topics,  are  not  reduced  to  the  necessity  of  amusing  them- 
selves by  “ bodily  wit.” 


experience,  and  so  work  their  way  to  rational  and  orderly  freedom  without 


A Joxjknf.yman's  Leave-taking. 

“ Hear  me,  all  of  you.  You,  and  you,  and  you,  and 


education  awaken  the  intelligence 
and  store  the  mind  with  the  food  of 
thought.  Indecency  is  the  natural 
resource  of  a thoughtless  mind,  be- 
cause the  physical  facts  of  our  exist- 
ence constitute  a very  large  propor- 
tion of  all  the  knowledge  it  possesses. 
Suppose  those  facts  and  the  ideas 
growing  directly  out  of  them  to  be 
one  hundred  in  number.  The  whole 
number  of  facts  and  ideas  in  an  igno- 


you!  Good-bye,  mistresses.  I tell  you  freely  to  your  rant  minci  may  not  exceed  two  hun- 


dred ; while  in  the  intellect  of  a Goethe 
or  a Lessing  there  may  live  and  re- 


Kiouter,  Leipsic,  1848. 


Many  Frenchmen  must  think  bodily/,  or  not  think  at  all.  This  conjecture  I 
hazard  because  I have  observed  in  Protestant  schools,  professedly  and  distinct- 


COMIC  ART  IN  SPAIN. 


249 


CHAPTER  XXI. 

COMIC  ART  IN  SPAIN. 

AS  it  is  ‘‘Don  Quixote”  that  has  given  most  of  us  whatever  insight  into 
Spanish  life  and  character  we  j^ossess,  we  should  naturally  expect  to  find 
in  the  Spain  of  to-day  abundant  manifestations  of  satirical  talent.  But  since 
the  great  age  when  such  men  as  Cervantes  could  be  formed,  the  intellect  of 
Spain  has  suffered  exhausting  depletion,  and  the  nation  has  in  consequence 
long  lain  intellectually  impotent,  the  natural  prey  of  priests,  dynasties,  and  har- 
lots. The  progress  of  a country  depends  upon  the  use  it  makes  of  its  best 
men.  Since  Cervantes  was  born,  in  1547,  all  the  valuable  men  among  the 
Moors  and  Jews,  with  a million  of  their  countrymen,  have  been  banished,  car- 
rying away  with  them  precious  arts,  processes,  instincts,  aptitudes,  and  tal- 
ents ; to  say  nothing  of  the  good  that  comes  to  a country  of  having  upon  its 
soil  a variety  of  races  and  religions,  each  developing  some  excellencies  of  hu- 
man nature  which  the  others  overlook  or  undervalue.  In  the  same  generation 
hundreds  of  the  valiant  men  of  Spain  went  down  in  the  Armada,  and  thou- 
sands were  wasted  in  America, 

But  these  were  not  the  fatal  losses.  These  men  could  have  been  replaced, 
such  is  the  bountiful  fertility  of  nature.  But,  in  those  days,  if  a man  was 
reared  who  possessed  independence  or  force  of  mind,  or  had  much  mind  of 
any  kind,  he  was  likely  to  become  a Protestant ; and,  if  he  did,  one  of  two  ca- 
lamitous fates  awaited  him,  either  of  which  made  him  useless  to  Spain  : he 
either  concealed  his  opinions,  and  thus  stifled  his  nobler  life,  or  else  the  Inqui- 
sition destroyed  him.  Xever  was  such  successful  war  waged  upon  the  human 
mind  as  in  Spain  at  that  period,  for  every  man  who  manifested  any  kind  of 
mental  superiority  was  either  slain  or  neutralized.  If  he  escaped  the  gold- 
mines, the  wars,  and  the  Inquisition,  there  was  still  the  Church  to  take  him  in 
and  convert  him  into  a priest. 

Xor  need  we  go  as  far  as  Spain  to  see  the  fatal  damage  done  to  communi- 
ties by  the  absorption  of  promising  youth  into  the  priesthood.  We  have  only 
to  go  to  the  French  parts  of  Canada,  and  mark  the  difference  between  the  tor- 
pid and  hopeless  villages  there,  and  the  vigorous,  handsome  towns  of  Xew 
England,  Xew  York,  and  Michigan,  just  over  the  border.  The  reason  of  this 
amazing  contrast  is  that  on  our  side  of  the  line  the  natural  leaders  of  the  peo- 
ple found  mills,  factories,  libraries,  and  schools ; on  the  other  side  they  enter 


250 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


“Senor,  we  have  brought  to  yonr  Majesty  this  paroquet,  which  we  found  as  we  were  going  our  rounds  in 
camp.”— From  Gil  Bias,  Madrid,  September,  1870. 

convents  and  build  churches;  and  the  people,  thus  bereft  of  their  natural 
chiefs,  harness  forlorn  cows  to  crazy  carts,  and  come  down  into  Vermont  and 
New  Hampshire  in  harvest-time  to  get  a little  money  to  help  them  through 
the  long  Canadian  winter.  Thus,  in  Spain  and  Italy,  the  men  who  ought  to 
serve  the  people,  prey  upon  them,  and  the  direct  and  chief  reason  why  the 
northern  nations  of  Europe  surpass  the  southern  is,  that  in  the  north  the  supe- 
rior minds  are  turned  to  account,  and  in  the  south  they  have  been  entombed 
in  the  Church  or  paralyzed  by  titles  of  nobility. 

Hence,  in  the  country  of  Cervantes,  in  the  native  land  of  Gil  Bias  and  Fi- 
garo, there  is  now  little  manifestation  of  their  comic  fertility  and  gayety  of 
mind.  A member  of  the  American  Legation  obligingly  writes  from  Madrid 
in  1875: 

“ I have  questioned  many  persons  here  in  regard  to  Spanish  caricature,  but 
have  always  received  the  same  reply,  namely,  that  pictorial  caricature,  political 
or  Other,  has  not  existed  in  Spain  till  1868.  I have  searched  book-stores  and 
book-stalls,  and  find  nothing;  nor  have  the  venders  been  able  to  aid  me.  I 
found  in  a private  library  some  Bibles  and  other  religious  books  of  the  six- 
teenth century,  in  which  were  caricatures  of  the  Pope  and  of  similar  subjects, 
but  they  were  printed  in  Flanders,  though  in  the  Spanish  language ; and  the 
art  is  Dutch.  The  pasquinades  of  Italy  never  prevailed  in  Spain.  It  is 


COMIC  AET  IN  SPAIN. 


251 


thought  at  our  Legation  here  that  there  must  have  been  caricature  in  Spain, 
from  the  writings  of  Spaniards  being  so  full  of  satire  and  wit;  but  though  the 
germ  may  have  existed,  I am  inclined  to  think  it  was  not  developed  till  the 
dethronement  of  Isabel  II.  and  the  proclamation  of  the  Republic  broke  down 
the  barriers  to  the  liberty,  if  not  license,  of  the  printing-press. 

“Between  1868  and  1875  various  papers  were  published  here  containing 
caricatures,  copies  of  which  are  to  be  had,  but  at  a premium.  Until  this  pe- 
riod, I fancy  the  Inquisition,  censorship,  and  other  causes  prevented  any  dis- 
play of  a spirit  of  caricature  which  may  have  existed.  The  real,  untraveled 
Spanish  mind  has  little  idea  of  true  wit:  of  satire  and  burlesque,  yes;  of  in- 
offensive joke  or  pun,  none.  There  is  no  Spanish  word  iox pun ; that  for  joke 
is  hroma,  taken  from  the  Spanish  name  of  the  Teredo  navcdis^  or  wood-borer, 
so  fatal  to  vessels,  and  really  means  an  annoying,  or  practical^  joke.  I have 
some  samples  of  caricature,  published  during  the  period  to  which  I refer, 
many  of  which,  to  one  who  is  familiar  with  the  politics,  manners,  and  customs 
in  Spain  at  the  time,  are  equal  in  point,  if  not  in  execution,  to  any  thing  in 
Punch.  They  were,  for  the  greater  part,  designed  by  Ortego,  but  are  of  the 
English  or  French  style,  and  have  little  Spanish  individuality.” 

A great  mass  of  the  comic  illustrated  series  and  periodicals  alluded  to  by 
my  attentive  correspondent  accompanied  his  letter,  and  justify  its  statements. 
The  “French  style”  is  indeed  most  apparent  in  them,  as  the  reader  shall  see. 
The  “ Comic  Almanac  ” for  1875  (“Almanaque  Comico”  para  1875),  published 


“There  they  go,  all  I’esolved  to  yell  Bungler  ! at  the  picador,  whether  he  does  his  part  well  or  ill.  It’s  all 
they  kuow  how  to  do.”— From  El  Mundo  Comico,  Madrid,  1ST3. 


252 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


A Delegation  of  Bikos  of  Prey,  presenting  Thanks  to  the  Authors  of  the  Bountiful  Carnage  pro- 
vided FOR  THE  Late  Festival.  (From  Gil  Bias,  Madrid,  September,  18T0.) 


at  Madrid,  and  profusely  illustrated,  is  entirely  in  the  French  style.  Many  of 
the  pictures  have  every  thing  of  Gavarni  except  his  genius.  Here  are  some 
that  catch  the  eye  in  running  over  its  shabby,  ill-printed  pages : 

Picture  of  an  ill-favored  father  contemplating  a worse-favored  boy,  aged 
about  six  years.  Father  speaks  : “ It  is  very  astonishing  ! The  more  this  son 
of  mine  grows,  the  more  he  looks  like  my  friend  Ramon.” 

Picture  of  a gentleman  in  evening  dress,  flirting  familiarly  with  a dancing- 
girl  behind  the  scenes  of  a theatre.  She  says:  ‘Mf  only  your  intentions  were 
good!”  To  which  he  replies  by  asking:  “And  what  do  you  call  good  inten- 
tions ?”  She  casts  down  her  eyes  and  stammers : “ To  promise — to  keep  your 
word.” 

Picture  of  a young  lady  at  the  desk  of  a public  writer,  to  whom  she  says : 
“ Make  the  sweetest  little  verse  to  tell  him  that  I hope  to  see  him  next  Sunday 
at  the  gate  of  the  Alcala,  near  the  flrst  swing.” 

Picture  of  a husband  and  wife,  both  in  exuberant  health,  ^he.  “You 
grow  worse  and  worse;  and  sea-bathing  is  so  good  for  you!”  He.  “And 
you?”  She.  “I  am  well;  but  I shall  go  with  you  to  take  care  of  you,  dear.” 
Picture  of  a very  fashionably  dressed  lady  and  little  girl,  to  whom  enters, 
hat  and  cane  in  hand,  a gentleman,  who  says  to  the  child : “ Do  you  not  re- 


COMIC  ART  IN  SPAIN. 


253 


member  me,  little  Ruby?”  She  replies:  “Ah,  yes!  You  are  the  first  papa 
that  used  to  come  to  our  house  a good  while  ago,  and  you  always  brought  me 
caramels.” 

Picture  of  two  young  ladies  in  conversation.  One  of  them  says : “ When 
he  looks  at  me,  I lower  my  eyes.  When  he  presses  my  hand,  I blush.  And  if 
he  kisses  me,  I call  to  mamma,  and  the  poor  fellow  believes  it,  and  dares  go  no 
further.” 

Picture  of  a woman  in  a bath-tub,  to  whom  enters  a man  presenting  a bill. 
She  says : “ Take  a seat,  for  I am  about  to  rise  from  the  bath,  and  then  we 
can  settle  that  account.” 

Picture  of  nurse,  infant,  and  father.  The  father  says : “ Tell  me,  nurse ; 
every  body  says  it  looks  like  me,  but  I 
think  it  takes  after  its  mother  more.” 

The  nurse  replies:  “When  it  laughs, 
yes ; but  when  it  frowns,  it  looks  like 
you  atrociously?'’ 

Picture  of  a “fast-looking”  woman 
and  the  janitor  of  a lodging-house. 

He  says:  “You  wish  to  see  the  land- 
lord? I think  he  does  not  mean  to 
have  ladies  in  his  house  who  are 
alone.”  She  replies : “ I am  never 
alone.” 

Picture  of  young  lady  in  bed,  to 
whom  a servant  holds  up  an  elegant 

. “ Child,  you  will  take  cold.” 

bonnet,  and  says:  ^^Tell  me,  since  you  “Itakecold?  Bat  how  well  that  overcoat  fits  him  l” 
, and  can  not  go  to  the  ball,  ’ ’ 

will  you  lend  this  to  your  affectionate  and  faithf  ul  servant^  since  I give  yon 
my  word  not  to  injure  it?” 

Picture  of  husband  and  wife  at  home,  she  taking  out  a note  that  had  been 
concealed  in  a handkerchief.  He  speaks:  “A  woman  who  deceives  her  hus- 
band deserves  no  pity.”  She  replies:  “But  if  she  does  not  deceive  her  hus- 
band, whom  is  she  to  deceive  ?” 

Picture  of  the  manager  of  a theatre  in  his  office,  to  whom  enters  a dramatic 
author.  Author:  “I  have  called  to  know  if  you  have  read  my  play.”  Man- 
ager: “Not  yet.  It  is  numbered,  in  the  list  of  plays  received,  792;  so  that 
for  this  year — ” Author : “No,  sir;  nor  for  that  which  is  to  come  either.” 

This  will  suffice  for  the  “Comic  Almanac.”  The  Comic  World  {El  3fun- 
do  Comico),  which  next  invites  attention,  is  a weekly  paper  published  at  Mad- 
rid during  the  last  four  years.  This  work,  also,  has  much  in  common  with 
the  wicked  world  of  Paris,  as  with  the  wicked  world  of  all  countries  where 
the  priest  feeds  the  imagination  and  starves  the  intellect.  This  reveling  in 
the  illicit  and  the  indecent,  which  so  astonishes  us  in  the  popular  literature  of 


254 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


Catholic  countries,  is  merely  a sign  of  impoverished  mind,  which  is  obliged  to 
revolve  ceaselessly  about  the  physical  facts  of  our  existence,  because  it  is  ac- 
quainted with  so  few  other  facts. 

The  first  number  of  the  Comic  World  presents  a colored  engraving  of  a 
Spanish  beauty,  attired  in  the  last  extremity  of  the  fashion,  bonnetless,  fan  in 
hand,  with  high -heeled  boots,  and  a blending  of  French  and  Spanish  in  her 
make-up,  walking  in  the  street  unattended.  The  picture  is  headed  : “In  Quest 
of  the  Unknown.” 

The  next  picture  shows  that  Spain,  too,  has  its  savings-banks  which  do  not 
save.  Two  strolling  musicians,  clothed  in  rags,  are  exhibited,  one  of  whom 
says  to  the  other:  “A  pretty  situation ! While  men  drive  by  in  a coach  after 
robbing  us  of  our  savings  deposited  in  their  banks,  we  ask  alms  of  the  rob- 


There  is  a pair  of  pictures,  one  called  “ The  Cocks,”  and  the  other  “ The 


tre.”  “Yes,  I remember;  the  one  in  the  box.”  In  these  pictures,  as  in  most 
other  Spanish  caricatures,  the  men  are  meagre  and  disagreeable-looking,  but 
the  ladies  are  plump  and  attractive. 

A “ domestic  scene  ” follows,  which  must  be  peculiar  to  Spain,  one  would 
think.  A gay  young  husband,  on  leaving  home  in  the  evening,  is  addressed 
by  his  wife,  who  has  a hand  in  his  waistcoat-pocket:  “You  carry  away  twelve 
dollars  and  three  shillings.  We  will  see  what  extraordinary  expense  you  in- 
cur to-night.” 

At  Madrid,  as  at  other  capitals  of  Europe,  the  Englishman  is  an  object  of 
interest.  Ladies  seem  to  consider  him  a desirable  match,  and  men  make  him 
the  hero  of  extravagant  anecdotes.  There  is  a table- d'' hole  picture  in  El 
Mundo  Comico^  presenting  a row  of  people  at  an  advanced  stage  of  dinner, 
when  the  guests  become  interesting  to  one  another.  “Have  you  seen  the  col- 
onel?” asks  a chaperon  of  the  young  lady  by  her  side.  The  damsel,  looking 


bers !” 


Pullets.”  The  Cocks  are  three  very 
young  Spanish  dandies,  with  dawn- 
ing mustaches,  extremely  thin  canes, 
and  all  the  other  puppyisms.  The 
Pullets  are  three  young  ladies  of 
similar  age  and  taste.  As  they  pass 
in  the  street,  one  of  the  Cocks  says 
to  his  companions:  “Do  you  see 
how  the  tallest  one  blushes?”  The 
reply  is:  “Yes;  when  she  sees  me.” 
At  the  same  moment  the  Pullets  ex- 
change whispers.  “How  fast  you 
go  !”  says  one.  “ Don’t  speak  !”  says 


COMIC  ART  IN  SPAIN. 


255 


her  demurest,  says : Do  not  distract  me ; the  Englishman  is  looking  at  me.” 

Other  pictures  indicate  that  the  ladies  of  Madrid  are  accustomed  to  look  upon 
Englishmen  as  worth  posing  for. 

The  Comic  World  aims  a vilely  executed  caricature  at  the  ghost  of  Ham- 
let’s father,  who  is  represented  in  the  usual  armor.  The  words  signify : “All 
I ask  is,  did  that  ancient  race  take  their  afternoon  nap  in  cuirass  and  helmet?” 
From  which  we  may  at  least  infer  that  “El  Principe  Hamlet”  is  a familiar 
personage  to  the  inhabitants  of  Madrid. 

Among  the  numerous  colored  engravings  which  reflect  upon,  or,  rather 
glorify,  the  frailty  of  women  is  one  which  can  with  difiiculty  be  understood  by 


Sufferings  endureg  by  a Prisoner  of  War,  (From  Gil  Bias,  Madrid,  September,  1870,) 


Protestants.  A girl  is  about  to  go  to  bed,  and  is  saying  a prayer  beginning, 
“With  God  I lie  down,  with  God  I rise,  with  the  Virgin  Mary  and  the  Holy 
Ghost !”  The  joke  does  not  appear  at  the  first  glance,  for  there  is  no  one  else 
in  the  bedroom,  unless  there  is  some  one  in  the  curtained  bed.  We  discover, 
at  length,  lying  near  her  feet,  a pair  of  man’s  boots  ! 

Nothing  is  sacred  to  these  savage  caricaturists  of  the  French  school.  An- 
other colored  picture  in  Mundo  Gomico  is  called  “Absence,”  and  is  de- 
signed to  exhibit  the  sorrow  of  a woman  at  the  absence  of  her  lover  in  the 
wars.  She  says : “ Poor  Louis  ! I am  here  alone,  forsaken,  and  he  is  pursuing 
the  insurgents  in  the  mountains.  Does  he  remember  me?”  The  innocent 
reader  may  well  ask,  What  is  the  comedy  of  the  situation?  The  woman  in 


256  • 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


this  scene  is  sitting  on  the  edge  of  her  bed,  nearly  naked,  taking  off  her  ear- 
rings, with  other  finery  of  her  trade  lying  about  on  the  table  and  the  floor. 

After  running  through  a volume  of  this  periodical,  we  are  prepared  to  be- 
lieve the  descriptions  given  of  society  in  the  Spanish  capital  by  the  corre- 
spondent of  the  London  Times  during  the  early  months  of  Alfonso’s  reign.” 
Speaking  of  a monstrous  scandal  inculpating  the  king,  he  wrote : “ In  a prof- 
ligate, frivolous,  and  gossiping  capital  like  Madrid,  where  every  one  seems  in- 
tent upon  political  plotting,  debauchery,  and  idleness,  there  is  no  scandal,  no 
invention  of  malice  too  gross  and  improbable  for  acceptance,  provided  those 
attacked  are  well  known.  The  higher  his  or  her  rank,  the  greater  is  the  cyn- 
ical satisfaction  with  which  the  tale  of  depravity  is  retailed  by  the  newsmon- 
gers in  ca/6,  tertulia,  and  club.” 

Another  comic  weekly  published  at  Madrid  is  called  Gil  Bias,  Periodico 
Sat'irico.  This  is  by  far  the  least  bad  of  the  comic  papers  recently  attempted 
in  Spain.  Many  of  its  subjects  are  drawn  from  the  politics  of  the  period,  and 
some  of  them  appear  to  be  very  happily  treated.  The  sorry  adventures  of 
Louis  Napoleon  and  his  son  in  the  w'ar  between  France  and  Prussia  are  pre- 
sented with  much  comic  effect.  Queen  Isabel  and  her  hopeful  boy  figure  also 
in  many  sketches,  which  were  doubtless  amusing  to  the  people  of  Madrid  when 
they  appeared.  The  Due  de  Montpensier  and  other  possible  candidates  for  the 
throne  are  portrayed  in  situations  and  circumstances  not  to  be  fully  under- 
stood at  this  distance  from  the  time  and  scene. 

The  Spanish  caricatures  given  in  this  chapter,  whatever  the  reader  may 
think  of  them,  were  selected  from  about  a thousand  specimens;  and  if  they 
are  not  the  very  best  of  the  thousand,  they  are  at  least  the  best  of  those  which 
can  be  appreciated  by  us. 

Cuba  had  its  comic  periodical  during  the  brief  ascendency  of  liberal  ideas 
in  1874.  A Cuban  letter  of  that  year  chronicles  its  suspension:  “The  comic 
weekly  newspaper,  Juan  Palonio,  has  met  its  death-blow  by  an  order  of  sus- 
pension for  a month,  and  a strong  hint  to  the  director,  Don  Juan  Ortega,  that 
a trip  to  the  Peninsula  would  be  of  benefit  to  his  health.  The  immediate 
cause  of  this  order  was  a cartoon,  representing  the  arms  of  the  captain-gen- 
eral wielding  a broom,  marked  ‘extraordinary  powers,’  and  sweeping  away  ig- 
norance, the  insurrection,  etc.  There  was  nothing,  in  fact,  to  take  umbrage 
at ; but  the  cartoon  served  as  a pretext  to  kill  the  paper,  which  was  rather  too 
republican  in  tone.  The  Government  censor  was  removed  from  his  position 
for  the  same  reason,  and  a new  one  appointed.” 

In  those  countries  long  debauched  by  superstition,  comic  art  has  little 
chance;  for  if  tyranny  does  not  kill  it,  a dissolute  public  degrades  it  into  a 
means  of  pollution. 


ITALIAN  CARICATURE. 


257 


CHAPTER  XXII. 


ITALIAN  CARICATURE. 


S soon  as  comic  art  in  Italy  is  mentioned,  we  think  of  Pasquino,  the  mer- 


ry Roman  tailor,  whose  name  has  enriched  all  the  languages  of  Europe 
with  an  effective  word.  Many  men  whose  names  have  been  put  to  a similar 
use  have,  notwithstanding,  been  completely  forgotten ; but  Pasquino,  after  hav- 
ing been  the  occasion  of  pasquinades  for  four  centuries,  is  still  freshly  remem- 
bered, and  travelers  tell  his  story  over  again  to  their  readers. 

Pasquino  was  the  fashionable  tailor  at  Rome  about  the  time  when  the  dis- 
covery of  America  was  a recent  piece  of  news.  In  his  shop,  as  tradition  re- 
ports, bishops,  courtiers,  nobles,  literary  men,  were  wont  to  meet  to  order  their 
clothes,  and  retail  the  scandal  of  the  city.  The  master  of  the  shop,  a wit  him- 
self, and  the  daily  receptacle  of  others’  wit,  uttered  frequent  epigrams  upon 
conspicuous  persons,  which  passed  from  mouth  to  mouth,  as  such  things  will 
in  an  idle  and  luxurious  community.  Whatever  piece  of  witty  malice  was  • 
afloat  in  the  town  came  to  be  attributed  to  Pasquino ; and  men  who  had  more 
wit  than  courage  attributed  to  him  the  satire  they  dared  not  claim. 

Catholics  who  have  seen  the  inside  of  Roman  life,  who  have  been  domi- 
ciled with  bishops  and  cardinals,  report  that  the  magnates  of  Rome,  to  this 
day,  associate  in  the  informal  manner  in  which  we  should  suppose  they  did 
four  centuries  ago,  from  the  traditions  of  Pasquino  and  his  sayings.  The 
Pope  sends  papers  of  bonbons  to  the  Sisters  who  have  charge  of  infant  schools, 
and  shares  among  the  cardinals  the  delicacies  and  interesting  objects  which 
are  continually  sent  to  him.  Upon  hearing  their  accounts  of  the  easy  familiar- 
ities and  light  tone  of  the  higher  ecclesiastical  society  of  recent  times,  we  can 
the  better  understand  the  traditions  that  have  come  down  to  us  of  Pasquino 
and  his  shop  full  of  highnesses  and  eminences. 

Pasquino,  like  the  “fellow  of  inflnite  jest”  upon  whose  skull  Hamlet  moral- 
ized in  the  church-yard,  died,  and  was  buried.  Soon  after  his  death  it  became 
necessary  to  dig  up  an  ancient  statue  half  sunk  in  the  ground  of  his  street; 
and,  to  get  it  out  of  the  way,  it  was  set  up  close  to  his  shop.  “ Pasquino  has 
come  back,”  said  some  one.  Rome  accepted  the  jest,  and  thus  the  statue  ac- 
quired the  name  of  Pasquino,  which  it  retains  to  the  present  day.  Soon  it  be- 
came a custom  to  stick  to  it  any  epigram  or  satirical  verse  the  author  of 
which  desired  to  be  unknown.  So  many  of  these  sharp  sayings  were  aimed  at 


17 


258 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


the  ecclesiastical  lords  of  Rome,  that  one  of  the  popes  was  on  the  point  of 
having  the  statue  thrown  into  the  river,  just  as  modern  tyrants  think  to  silence 
criticism  by  suppressing  the  periodical  in  which  it  appears.  Pasquino,  prop- 
erly enough,  was  saved  by  an  epigram. 

‘CDo  not  throw  Pasquino  into  the  Tiber,”  said  the  Spanish  embassador, 
‘‘  lest  he  should  teach  all  the  frogs  in  the  river  to  croak  pasquinades.” 

We  can  not  wonder  that  the  popes  should  have  objected  to  Pasquino’s 
biting  tongue,  if  the  specimens  of  his  wit  which  are  given  by  Mr.  Story*  fairly 
represent  him.  There  was  a volume  of  six  hundred  and  thirty-seven  pages  of 
epigrams  and  satires,  published  in  1544,  claiming  to  be  pasquinades,  many  of 
which  doubtless  were  such.  Here  is  one  upon  the  infamous  pope,  Alexander 
Sextus : 

“Sextus  Tarquinius,  Sextus  Nero — this  also  is  Sextus. 

Always  under  the  Sextuses  Rome  has  been  ruined.” 

After  the  sudden  death  of  Pope  Leo  X.,  two  Latin  lines  to  the  following 
effect  were  found  upon  Pasquino : 

“ If  you  desire  to  hear  why  at  his  last  hour  Leo 
Could  not  the  sacraments  take,  know  he  had  sold  them.” 

The  allusion  is  to  Leo’s  unscrupulous  use  of  every  means  within  his  power 
of  raising  money. 

When  Clement  VIL,  after  the  sack  of  Rome,  was  held  a prisoner,  Pasquino 
had  this : 

“Pa^a  non  potest  err  are." 

This  sentence  ordinarily  means  that  the  pope  can  not  err;  but  the  verb 
errare  signifies  also  to  vmnder.,  to  stroll ; so  that  the  line  was  a sneer  both  at 
the  pope’s  confinement  and  his  claim  to  infallibility. 

One  of  Pasquino’s  hardest  hits  was  called  forth  by  the  grasping  measures 
of  Pius  VI. : 

“Three  jaws  had  Cerberus,  and  three  mouths  as  well. 

Which  barked  into  the  blackest  deeps  of  hell. 

Three  hungry  mouths  have  you  ; ay,  even  four; 

None  of  them  bark,  but  all  of  them  devour.” 

There  was  a capital  one,  too,  and  a just,  upon  the  institution  of  the  Legion 
of  Honor  in  France  by  Napoleon  Bonaparte,  not  long  after  he  had  stolen  sev- 
eral hundred  precious  works  of  art  and  manuscripts  from  the  Roman  States. 

“ In  times  less  pleasant  and  more  fierce,  of  old, 

The  thieves  were  hung  upon  the  cross,  we’re  told. 

In  times  less  fierce,  more  pleasant,  like  to-day. 

Crosses  are  hung  upon  the  thieves,  they  say.” 

Thus  for  centuries  have  Pasquino  and  his  rival,  Maifnrio,  an  exhumed  riv- 


* “Ruba  di  Roma,”p.  283. 


ITALIAN  CAKICATURE. 


259 


er-god,  given  occasional  expression  to  the  pent-np  wrath  of  Italy  at  the  spo- 
liation of  their  beautiful  country.  Mr.  Story  reports  a pasquinade  which  ap- 
peared but  a very  few  years  since,  when  all  the  world  was  longing  to  hear  of 
the  death  of  Ferdinand  II.  of  Naples,  who,  under  the  name  of  King  Bomba, 
was  so  deeply  execrated  by  Italians.  Pasquino  supposes  a traveler  just  arrived 
from  Naples,  and  asks  him  what  he  has  seen  there,  when  the  following  conver- 
sation takes  place : 

‘‘I  have  seen  a tumor  [^wmore].”  “A  tumor?  But  what  is  a tumor?” 
“For  answer,  take  away  the  L”  “Ah ! a humor  \%imore\.  But  is  this  humor 
dangerous?”  “Take  away  the  uP  “He  dies!  what  a pity!  But  when? 
Shortly  ?”  “ Take  away  the  m.”  “ Hours  ! In  a few  hours  ! But  who,  then, 
has  this  humor?”  “Take  away  the  o.”  “ King!  The  king!  I am  delight- 
ed. But,  then,  where  will  he  go  ?”  “ Take  away  the  n”  “ E-e-e-h  !” 

Could  there  be  any  thing  better  than  a pasquinade  which  appeared  during 
the  conference  upon  Italian  affairs  at  Zurich  between  the  representatives  of 


King  Bomba’s  Ultimatum  to  Sicily.  (From  II  Don  Pirlone,  Rome,  December,  1848.) 


Austria,  Italy,  and  France?  Pasquino  enters  the  chamber,  where  he  holds  the 
following  conversation  with  the  plenipotentiaries : 

“Do  you  speak  French?”  “No.”  “Do  you  speak  German?”  “No.” 
“Do  you  speak  Italian?”  “No.”  “What  language  do  you  speak?”  “Lat- 
in.” “And  what  have  you  got  to  say  in  Latin?”  “As  it  was  in  the  begin- 
ning, is  now,  and  ever  shall  be,  for  ever  and  ever.  Amen.” 

Happily,  Pasquino  was  not  a prophet,  and  the  affairs  of  Italy  are  not  as 
they  were  and  had  been  during  so  many  ages  of  despair. 

From  these  specimens  of  Italian  satire  we  should  expect  to  find  the  people 
of  Italy  effective  with  the  satirical  pencil  also.  The  spirit  of  caricature  is  in 
them,  but  the  opportunities  for  its  exercise  and  exhibition  have  been  few  and 
far  between.  As  in  Spain  there  was  an  exhaustive  depletion  of  intellectual 
force,  so  in  Italy  the  human  mind,  during  late  centuries,  has  been  crushed 
under  a dead  weight  of  priests.  Professor  Charles  Eliot  Norton,  in  his 


260 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


‘‘  Travel  and  Study  in  Italy,”  tells  us  that  Roman  artists  can  not  now  so  much 
as  copy  well  the  masterpieces  by  which  they  are  surrounded. 

“ The  utter  sterility,”  he  says,  and  impotence  of  mind  which  have  long- 
been  and  are  still  conspicuous  at  Rome,  the  deadness  of  the  Roman  imagina- 
tion, the  absence  of  all  intellectual  energy  in  literature  and  in  art,  are  the  nec- 
essary result  of  the  political  and  moral  servitude  under  which  the  Romans 
exist.  Where  the  exercise  of  the  j^rivileges  of  thought  is  dangerous,  the  power 
of  expression  soon  ceases.  For  a time — as  during  the  seventeenth  century  in 
Italy — the  external  semblance  of  originality  may  remain,  and  mechanical  facil- 
ity of  execution  may  conceal  the  absence  of  real  life ; but  by  degrees  the  very 
semblance  disappears,  and  facility  of  execution  degenerates  into  a mere  trick 
of  the  hand.  The  Roman  artists  of  the  present  time  have  not,  in  general,  the 
capacity  even  of  good  copyists.  They  can  mix  colors  and  can  polish  marble, 
but  they  are  neither  painters  nor  sculptors.” 

And  yet  (as  the  same  author  remarks)  with  the  first  breath  of  freedom  the 
dormant  capacity  of  the  Italians  awakes.  In  Italy,  as  in  France,  Spain,  and 
Cuba,  caricature  dies  when  freedom  is  gone,  and  lives  again  as  soon  as  the  op- 
pressor is  removed.  In  1848,  when  the  Revolution  had  gained  ascendency  in 
Rome,  a satirical  paper  appeared,  called  II  Don  Pirlone^  published  weekly, 
and  illustrated  by  strong,  though  rudely  executed,  caricatures.  Don  Pirlone 
was  the  name  of  a familiar  character  in  Italian  comedy  and  farce.  The  pict- 
ures in  this  work  abundantly  justify  the  encomiums  of  Professor  Norton  and 
Mr.  Story,  who  both  pronounce  them  to  be  full  of  spirit  and  vigor,  proving 
that  the  satiric  fire  of  the  early  pasquinades  is  not  extinguished. 

Among  the  specimens  given  in  this  chapter,  the  reader  will  not  fail  to 

notice  the  one  that  made 
its  appearance  in  June, 
1849,  when  thirty  thou- 
sand French  troops,  under 
the  command  of  General 
Oudinot,  were  about  to 
replace  uj3on  the  heart 
and  brain  of  Rome  the 
cumbrous,  fantastic  Medi- 
cine-man of  Christendom. 
This  picture,  slight  as  is 
the  impression  which  it 
makes  upon  us,  who  can 
safely  smile  at  the  medi- 
cine-men of  all  climes  and 
tribes,  was  most  eagerly 
scanned  by  the  outraged 
people  of  Rome,  to  whom 


He  has  begxtn  the  Service  with  Mass,  and  oompeeted  it  with 
Bomds.  (From  II  Don  Pirlo7ie,  Kome,  June  15th,  1849.) 


ITALIAN  CARICATURE. 


261 


the  return  of  the  Medicine -man  boded  another  twenty  years  of  asphyxia. 
Don  Pirlone  was  obliged  to  print  extra  editions  to  supply  the  demand.  The 
picture  exhibits  the  interior  of  a church,  and  the  Pope  celebrating  mass;  Gen- 
eral Oudinot  assists  him,  kneeling  at  the  steps  of  the  altar  and  holding  up 
the  pontifical  robes.  The  bell  used  at  the  mass  is  in  the  form  of  an  imperial 
crown.  Surrounding  the  altar,  a crowd  of  military  officers  are  seen,  and  be- 
hind them  a row  of  bayonets.  The  candles  on  the  altar  are  in  the  form  of  bay- 
onets. The  time  chosen  by  the  artist  is  the  supreme  moment  of  the  mass, 
when  the  celebrant  elevates  the  host.  The  image  of  Christ  on  the  crucifix 
has  withdrawn  its  arms  from  the  cross-bars,  and  covered  its  face  with  its 
hands,  as  if  to  shut  the  desecration  from  its  sight.  Lightning  darts  from 
the  cross,  and  a hissing  serpent  issues  from  the  wine-cup.  On  the  sole  of  one 
of  General  Oudinot’s  boots  are  the  words,  Articolo  V,  della  Constituzione  (Ar- 
ticle V.  of  the  Constitution,  ^.  e.,  the  French  Constitution),  which  declared  that 
“the  French  Republic  never  employs  its  forces  against  the  liberty  of  any  peo- 
ple.” Underneath  this  fine  caricature  was  printed : “ He  began  the  service 
with  the  mass,  and  completed  it  with  bombs.” 

Two  weeks  more  of  life  were  vouchsafed  to  II  Don  Pirlone  after  the 
publication  of  this 
caricature.  On  July 
2d,  1849,  the  French 
army  marched  into 
Rome,  and  the  paper 
appeared  no  more. 

The  last  number  con- 
tained an  engraving 
of  Liberty,  a woman 
lying  dead  upon  the 
earth,  with  a cock  on 
a neighboring  dung- 
Ifill  crowing,  and  a 
French  general  cov-  Juiy,iS49. 

ering  over  the  prostrate  body.  Under  the  picture  was  printed  : “But,  dear  Mr. 
Undertaker,  are  you  so  perfectly  sure  that  she  is  dead  ?” 

These  were  certainly  vigorous  specimens  of  satiric  art,  and  increase  both 
our  wonder  and  our  regret  at  the  mental  degradation  of  the  beautiful  countries 
of  Southern  Europe.  They  increase  our  wonder,  I say,  because  the  ascend- 
ency of  priests  in  a nation  is  more  an  effect  than  a cause  of  degeneracy. 
When  the  canker-worm  takes  possession  of  a 'New  England  orchard,  and  de- 
vours every  germ  and  green  leaf,  covering  all  the  trees  with  loathsome  blight, 
it  is  not  because  the  canker-worm  there  is  more  vigorous  or  deadly  than  on 
the  next  farm,  but  because  the  soil  of  the  blasted  orchard  is  wanting  in  some 
ingredient  or  condition  needful  for  the  vigorous  life  of  fruit-trees.  It  is  not 


“But,  dear  Mr. Undertaker,  are  you  so  perfectly  sure  that  she  is  dead?” — 


262 


CAEICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


priests,  beggars,  and  banditti  that  make  Mexico,  Peru,  Italy,  and  Spain  what 
we  find  them.  Priests,  beggars,  and  banditti  are  but  the  vermin  whose  nat- 
ural prey  is  a low  moral  and  mental  life ; and  hence  the  wonder  that  Italy,  so 
long  a prey  to  such,  should  still  produce  originating  minds. 

Other  caricatures  in  II  Don  Pirlone  were  remarkable.  The  alliance  be- 
tween Austria  and  France  in  May,  1849,  suggested  a picture  called  “A  Secret 
Marriage,”  which  was  also  a church  scene,  the  altar  bearing  the  words  ‘‘Ad 
mmorem  Dei  gloriam^^  (“To  the  lesser  glory  of  God”),  a parody  of  the  words 
adopted  by  the  Inquisition,  “Ad  majorem  Dei  gloriami  The  Pope  is  marry- 
ing the  bridal  pair,  who  kneel  at  a desk— the  groom,  a French  officer  with  a 
cock’s  head,  and  for  a crest  an  imperial  crown ; the  bride,  a woman  with  long 
robes,  and  on  her  head  the  Austrian  double  eagle.  Upon  the  desk  are  an  axe, 
a whip,  a skull,  and  crossbones. 


Bomba  at  Sdpbeb.  Effect  of  Impeessions.  (From  11  Bon  Pirlone,  Rome,  May,  1849.) 

Mr. Norton  describes  another,  called  the  “Wandering  Jew.”  “Flying  to  the 
verge  of  Europe,  where  the  Atlantic  washes  the  shores  of  Portugal,  is  seen  the 
tall  figure  of  the  unhappy  Carlo  Alberto,  driven  by  skeleton  ghosts,  over  whose 
heads  shine  stars  with  the  dates  1821,  1831,  1848.  In  the  midst  of  the  sky, 
before  the  fugitive,  are  the  flaming  words  ‘A  Carignano  Maledizione  Eter- 
nal (‘Cursed  be  Carignano  forever!’)  to  which  a hand,  issuing  from  the 
clouds,  points  with  extended  forefinger.  The  grim  and  threatening  skeletons, 
the  ghosts  of  those  whom  Carignano  had  betrayed,  the  tormented  look  of  the 
flying  king,  the  malediction  in  the  heavens,  the  solitude  of  the  earth  and  the 
sea,  display  a concentrated  power  of  imagination  rare  in  art.” 

The  ruling  theme  of  these  powerful  sketches  is  the  foul  union  of  priest  and 
king  for  the  common  purpose  of  spoiling  fair  Italy.  The  moral  of  the  work 
might  be  summed  up  in  the  remark  of  an  Italian  soldier  whom  Mr.  Norton 
met  one  day  near  Rome.  “Are  the  roads  quiet  now?”  asked  the  American 


ITALIAN  CARICATURE. 


263 


traveler.  Ah,  excellency,”  replied  the  man,  the  poor  must  live,  and  the  win- 
ter is  hard,  and  there  is  no  work!”  ‘‘But  how  was  the  harvest?”  “Small 
enough,  signore ! There  is  no  grain  at  Tivoli,  and  no  wine ; and  as  for  the 
olives,  a thousand  trees  have  not  given  the  worth  of  a hojoecoP  “And  what 
does  the  Government  do  for  the  poor  ?”  “ Nothing,  nothing  at  all.”  “ And 

the  priests?”  ^^Eh!  They  live  well,  always  well;  they  have  a good  time  in 
this  world — but?” 


One  striking  picture  in  II  Don  Dirlone  represents  Italy  in  the  form  of  a 
huge  military  boot  lying  prostrate  on  the  earth,  with  Liberty  half  astride  of 
it,  holding  a broom.  She  has  just  knocked  off  the  boot  a French  general,  who 
lies  on  the  ground  with  his  hat  at  some  distance  from  him,  and  she  has  raised 
her  broom  to  give  a second  blow.  But  at  that  critical  moment,  the  Pope 
thrusts  his  hands  from  a cloud,  seizes  the  broom,  and  holds  it  back.  Inside 
the  boot  is  seen  ambushed  a cardinal  with  two  long  daggers,  waiting  to  strike 
Liberty  to  the  heart  when  she  shall  be  disarmed.  Underneath  is  printed : 
“ Impediments  to  Liberty.” 

In  a similar  spirit  was  conceived  a picture  called  “A  Modern  Synod,”  which 
reflected  upon  the  diplomatic  conference  in  Belgium  on  Italian  affairs  between 
the  representatives  of  Austria,  France,  and  England.  There  sits  Italy  in  the 
council-chamber,  bound  and  naked  to  the  waist,  for  the  scourge.  At  the  ta- 


264 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


ble  are  seated,  Austria,  with  head  of  double  eagle;  France,  with  a cock’s  bead 
and  crest, but  a woman’s  bosom  and  extremely  low-necked  dress;  and  England, 
with  a head  compounded  of  unicorn  and  donkey.  Underneath  the  table  are 
the  Pope  and  King  Bomba,  with  hidden  scourges,  only  waiting  for  the  confer- 
ence to  end  to  resume  their  congenial  task  of  lashing  helpless  Italy. 

A terrific  picture  is  one  representing  the  Pope  with  a scourge  in  his  hand, 
riding  high  in  the  air  over  Rome,  mounted  upon  a hideous  flying  dragon  with 
four  heads.  One  of  the  heads  is  Austria’s  double  eagle ; another,  the  Gallic 
cock ; the  third,  Spain  ; the  fourth.  Bomba.  The  papal  crown  is  carried  in  the 

coil  of  the  monster’s  forked 
tail.  Under  the  picture  are 
words  signifying  ‘‘  Such  is 
the  love  of  kings  !” 

Imagine  endless  varia- 
tions upon  this  theme  in 
II  Don  Pirlone^  executed 
invariably  with  force,  and 
sometimes  with  a power 
that,  even  at  this  distance 
of  time,  rouses  the  soul. 

Laying  aside  the  cari- 
catures of  the  Revolution, 
of  which  considerable  vol- 
umes have  been  collected, 
I may  say  a word  or  two 
of  the  comic  entertainment 
that  has  now  become  uni- 
versal, Punch,  which,  if 
Italy  did  not  originate  it, 
received  there  its  modern 
form  and  character.  Punch 
is  now  exhibited  daily  in 
every  civilized  and  semi-civilized  land  or  earth — in  China,  Siam,  India,  Japan, 
Tartary,  Russia,  Egypt,  everywhere.  A New  York  traveler,  well  known  both 
for  the  extent  of  his  journeys  and  for  the  excellent  use  he  has  made  of  them, 
tells  me  that  he  saw,  not  long  ago,  a performance  of  Punch  at  Cairo,  in  a tent, 
in  Arabic,  a small  coin  being  charged  for  admission.  The  people  entered  with 
a grave  demeanor,  sat  in  rows  upon  the  sand,  listened  to  the  dialogue  without 
a smile,  and  at  the  close  filed  out  in  silence,  as  if  from  a solemnity.  The  per- 
formance was  similar  to  that  with  which  we  are  acquainted.  The  American 
reader,  however,  may  not  be  very  familiar  with  the  exploits  of  Punch,  for  he 
has  made  his  way  slowly  in  the  New  World,  and  was  rarely,  if  ever,  seen  here 
until  within  the  last  ten  years. 


ITALIAN  CARICATURE. 


265 


Much  second-hand  erudition  could  be  adduced  to  show  tliat  Puncli,  besides 
being  universal,  dates  back  to  remote  antiquity.  The  bronze  figure  could  be 
mentioned  which  was  found  at  Herculaneum  some  years  ago,  with  the  Punchian 
nose  and  chin;  as  well  as  a drawing  on  the  wall  of  a guard-house  at  Pompeii, 
in  which  there  is  a figure  costumed  like  Punch.  Even  the  name  Punch, 
which  some  derive  from  Paunchy  is  supposed  by  others  to  be  a corruption  of 
the  first  name  of  Pontius  Pilate.  The  weight  of  probability  favors  the  con- 
jecture that  Punch  really  did  originate  in  India,  at  least  three  thousand  years 
ago,  and  came  down,  through  other  Oriental  lands,  to  Greece,  part  of  the  stock 
of  traditions  that  gather  about  Bacchus  and  his  comic  audacities — jovial  and 


Return  of  the  Pope  to  Rome.  (From  11  Don  Pirlone,  Rome,  1849.) 


impudent  Vice  triumphant  over  unskillful  Virtue.  Punch  is  a brother  of  Don 
Juan,  except  that  Punch  is  victorious  to  the  very  end;  and  the  fable  of  Don 
Juan  is  among  the  oldest  of  human  imaginings. 

It  is  agreed,  however,  that  the  Punch  of  modern  European  streets  is  Nea- 
politan ; and  even  to  this  day,  as  travelers  report,  nowhere  in  the  world  is  the 
drama  of  Punch  given  with  such  force  of  drollery  as  in  Naples.  What  Mr. 
D’Israeli,  in  the  “ Curiosities  of  Literature,”  where  much  Punch  learning  may 
lie  found,  says  of  the  histrionic  ability  of  the  Italian  people,  has  been  often 
confirmed  since  his  day.  He  adds  an  incident: 

‘‘  Perhaps  there  never  was  an  Italian  in  a foreign  country,  however  deep 
in  trouble,  but  would  drop  all  remembrance  of  his  sorrows  should  one  of  his 
countrymen  present  himself  with  the  paraphernalia  of  Punch  at  tlie  corner  of 


2G6 


CAKICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


a street.  I was  acquainted  with  an  Italian,  a philosopher  and  a man  of  fort- 
une, residing  in  England,  who  found  so  lively  a pleasure  in  performing  Punchi- 
nello’s little  comedy,  that,  for  this  purpose,  with  considerable  expense  and  cu- 
riosity, he  had  his  wooden  company,  in  all  their  costume,  sent  over  from  his  na- 
tive place.  The  shrill  squeak  of  the  tin  whistle  had  the  same  comic  effect  on 
him  as  the  notes  of  the  ranz-des-v aches  have  in  awakening  the  tenderness  of 
domestic  emotion  in  the  wandering  Swiss.  The  national  genius  is  dramatic.” 

Through  the  joint  labors  of  Mr.  George  Cruikshank  and  Mr.  Payne  Collier, 
we  now  know  exactly  what  the  Punchian  drama  is,  as  performed  by  the  best 
artists.  Mr.  Cruikshank  explains  the  truly  English  process  by  which  this  val- 
uable information  was  obtained : 

Having  been  engaged  by  Mr.  Prowett,  the  publisher,  to  give  the  various 
scenes  represented  in  the  street  performances  of  Punch  and  Judy,  I obtained 
the  address  of  the  proprietor  and  performer  of  that  popular  exhibition.  He 
was  an  elderly  Italian,  of  the  name  of  Piccini,  whom  I remembered  from  boy- 
hood, and  he  lived  at  a low  public-house,  the  sign  of  ‘ The  King’s  Arms,’  in  the 
‘Coal-yard,’  Drury  Lane.  Having  made  arrangements  for  a ‘morning  per- 
formance,’ one  of  the  window-frames  on  the  first  floor  of  the  public-house  was 
taken  out,  and  the  stand,  or  Punch’s  theatre,  was  hauled  into  the  ‘ Club-room.’ 
Mr.  Payne  Collier  (who  was  to  write  the  description),  the  publisher,  and  my- 
self, fonned  the  audience ; and  as  the  performance  went  on,  I stopped  it  at  the 
most  interesting  parts  to  sketch  the  figures,  while  Mr.  Collier  noted  down  the 
dialogue;  and  thus  the  whole  is  a faithful  copy  and  description  of  the  various 
scenes  represented  by  this  Italian.” 

The  drama  thus  obtained,  which  has  since  been  published  with  Mr.  Cruik- 
shank’s  illustrations,  must  at  least  be  pi’onounced  the  most  popular  of  all  dra- 
matic entertainments  past  or  present.  It  is  now  in  the  thirtieth  century  of  its 
“run  5”  and  even  the  modern  Italian  version  dates  back  to  the  year  1600.  It 
is  a rough,  wild  caricature  of  human  life. 


ENGLISH  CARICATURE  OF  THE  PRESENT  CENTURY. 


267 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 

ENGLISH  CARICATURE  OF  THE  PRESENT  CENTURY. 

JAMES  GILLRAY,  though  the  favorite  caricaturist  of  London  before  the 
beginning  of  our  century,  did  not  reach  the  full  development  of  his  talent 
until  the  later  extravagancies  of  Napoleon  Bonaparte  gave  him  subjects  so 
richly  suggestive  of  burlesque.  Even  at  this  late  day,  when  we  have  it  in  our 
power  to  know  the  infinite  mis- 
chief done  to  our  race  by  such 
perjured  charlatans  as  Bona- 
parte, it  is  difiicult  to  read  some 
of  his  bulletins  and  messages 
without  bursts  of  laughter — the 
imitation  of  known  models  is  so 
childish,  and  they  reveal  so  pre- 
posterous an  ignorance  of  every 
thing  that  the  ruler  of  a civilized 
country  ought  to  know.  After 
giving  London  a long  series  of 
caricatures  of  the  French  Revo- 
lution and  of  the  English  fer- 
mentation that  followed  it,  Gill- 
ray  fell  upon  Napoleon,  and  ex- 
hibited the  ludicrous  aspects  of 
the  man  and  his  doings  with  a 
comic  fertility  and  effectiveness  rarely  equaled.  True,  he  knew  very  little 
either  of  the  Revolution  or  of  Bonaparte — England  knew  little — but  while  all 
well-informed  and  humane  persons  have  forgiven  the  excesses  of  the  Revolu- 
tionary period,  or  laid  the  blame  at  the  door  of  the  real  culprits,  the  world  is 
coming  round  to  the  view  of  Napoleon  Bonaparte  which  the  caricaturist  gave 
seventy  years  ago.  If  I were  asked  to  name  the  best  five  caricatures  pro- 
duced since  Hogarth,  one  of  the  five  would  be  James  Gillray’s  Tiddy-Doll, 
the  Great  French  Gingerbread  Baker  drawing  out  a New  Batch  of  Kings;” 
and  another,  a picture  by  the  same  artist,  ^‘King  of  Brobdingnag  and  Gulli- 
ver” ridiculing  Napoleon’s  scheme  of  invading  England  in  1803.  Both  are 
masterpieces  of  satiric  art  in  what  we  may  justly  style  the  English  style;  i.e., 


268 


CAKICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


Tiudy-Doll,  the  Gueat  French  Gingerrreab  Baker,  drawing  out  a New  Batch  of  Kings.  His  Man, 
Hopping  Talley,  mixing  up  the  Dough.  (Gillray,  1S06.) 


the  style  which  amuses  every  body  and  wounds  nobody,  not  even  the  person 
satirized. 

Born  in  1757,  when  Hogarth  liad  still  seven  years  to  live,  the  son  of  a valiant 
English  soldier  who  left  an  arm  in  Flanders,  James  Gillray  belongs  more  to  the 
old  school  of  caricaturists  than  to  the  new.  Many  of  his  works  could  not  now 
be  exhibited ; nor  was  Gillray  superior  in  moral  feeling  to  the  time  in  which 
he  lived.  He  flattered  the  pride  and  the  prejudices  of  John  Bull.  In  a deep- 
drinking age,  his  own  habits  were  excessively  convivial ; were  such  as  to  short- 
en his  life,  after  having  impaired  his  reason.  He  was,  nevertheless,  for  a pe- 
riod of  twenty  years  the  favorite  caricaturist  of  his  country,  and  a very  large 
number  of  his  works  are  in  all  respects  admirable.  The  reader  will  remark 
that  Gillray,  like  most  of  his  countrymen,  was  not  acquainted  with  the  counte- 
nance of  Napoleon,  and  could,  therefore,  only  give  the  popularly  accepted  por- 
trait. His  likenesses  generally  are  excellent. 

Among  the  crowds  of  laughing  English  boys  who  hailed  every  new  picture 
issued  by  Gillray  during  the  last  ten  years  of  his  career  was  one  named  George 
Cruikshank,  still  living  and  honored  among  his  countrymen  in  1877.  Him  we 
may  justly  style  the  founder  of  the  new  school — the  virtuous  school — of  comic 
art,  which  accords  so  agreeably  with  the  humaner  civilization  which  has  been 
stealing  over  the  world  of  late  years,  and  particularly  since  the  suppression  of 
Bonaparte  in  1815.  On  page  270  is  a picture  of  his  executed  in  his  eightieth 
year,  a proof  of  the  steadiness  of  hand  and  alertness  of  mind  which  reward  a 
temperate  and  honorable  life  even  in  extreme  old  age.  This  picture  was  both 


ENGLISH  CAKICATURE  OF  THE  PRESENT  CENTURY. 


269 


drawn  and  engraved  by  his  own  hand  to  please  one  of  his  oldest  American 
friends,  Mr.  J.  W.  Bouton,  of  New  York,  long  concerned  in  collecting  and  dis- 
tributing his  works  among  us.  Here,  then,  is  a living  artist  whose  first  hand- 
ling of  the  etching-tool  dates  back  almost  three-quarters  of  a century.  Mr. 
Reid,  the  keeper  of  prints  and  drawings  in  the  British  Museum,  has  been  at 
the  pains  to  make  a catalogue  of  the  works  of  George  Cruikshank.  The  num- 
ber of  entries  in  this  catalogue  is  five  thousand  two  hundred  and  sixty -five, 
many  of  which  comprise  extensive  series  of  drawings,  so  that  the  total  num- 
ber of  his  pictures  probably  exceeds  twenty  thousand — about  one  picture  for 
every  working-day  during  the  productive  part  of  his  career. 

There  is  perhaps  no  gift  so  likely  to  be  transmitted  from  father  to  son  as  a 
talent  for  drawing.  Certainly  it  runs  in  the  Cruikshank  family,  for  there  are 
already  five  of  the  name  known  to  collectors,  much  to  their  confusion.  As  a 
guide  to  Mr.  Reid  in  the  preparation  of  his  catalogue,  the  old  gentleman  made 
a brief  statement,  which  is  one  of  the  curiosities  of  art  gossip,  and  it  may 
serve  a useful  purpose  to  collectors  in  the  United  States.  His  father,  Isaac 
Cruikshank,  was  a designer  and  etcher  and  engraver,  as  well  as  a water-color 
draughtsman.  His  brother,  Isaac  Robert,  a miniature  and  portrait  painter,  was 


n 


The  Threatened  Invasion  op  England,  1S04,  (Gillray.) 

(The  King  of  Brobdingnag  and  Gulliver.  Seme  — Gulliver  manoeuvring  with  his  little  boat  in  the  cis- 
tern.— Vide  Swift’s  “Gulliver.”) 

“I  often  used  to  row  for  my  own  diversion,  as  well  as  that  of  the  queen  and  her  ladies,  who  thought  them- 
selves well  entertained  with  my  skill  and  agility.  Sometimes  I would  put  up  my  sail  and  show  my  art  by 
steering  starboard  and  larboarA  However,  my  attempts  produced  nothing  else  besides  a loud  laughter, 
which  all  the  respect  due  to  his  majesty  from  those  about  him  could  not  make  them  contain.  This  made  me 
reflect  how  vain  an  attempt  it  is  for  a man  to  endeavor  to  do  himself  honor  among  those  who  are  out  of  all 
degree  of  equality  or  comparison  with  him.’’ 


270 


CAEICATURE  AND  COMIC  AET. 


also  a designer  and  etcher,  and  “ your  humble  servant  likewise  a designer  and 
€»tcher.  When  I was  a mere  boy,”  he  adds,  “ my  dear  father  kindly  allowed 
me  to  play  at  etching  on  some  of  his  copper-plates,  little  bits  of  shadows  or 
little  figures  in  the  background,  and  to  assist  him  a little  as  I grew  older,  and 
he  used  to  assist  me  in  putting  in  hands  and  faces.  And  when  my  dear  broth- 
er Robert  (who  in  his  latter  days  omitted  the  Isaac)  left  off  portrait-painting, 

and  took  almost  entire- 
ly to  designing  and 
etching,  I assisted  him, 
at  first  to  a great  ex- 
tent, in  some  of  his 
drawings.”  Tlie  result 
was  that,  in  looking 
over  the  pictures  of 
sixty  years  ago,  he 
could  not  always  tell 
his  own  work;  and,  to 
make  matters  worse, 
his  brother  left  a son, 
Percy  Cruikshank,  also 
a draughtsman  and  en- 
graver, and  he,  too,  has 
an  artist  son,  named 
George.  The  family 
has  231’ovided  work  for 
the  coming  connois- 
seur. 

The  glory  of  the  liv- 
ing veteran,  however,  will  remain  unique,  because  he,  first  of  the  comic  artists 
of  his  country,  caught  the  new  spirit,  avoided  the  grossness  and  thoughtless 
one-sidedness  of  his  predecessors,  and  used  his  art  in  such  a manner  that  now, 
in  his  eighty-fourth  year,  looking  back  through  the  long  gallery  of  his  works 
gathered  by  the  affectionate  persistence  of  his  admirers,  he  can  not  point  to 
one  picture  which  for  any  moral  reason  he  could  wish  to  turn  to  the  wall. 

England  owes  much  to  her  humorists  of  the  new  humane  school.  She 
owes,  perhaps,  more  than  she  yet  perceives,  because  the  changes  which  they 
promote  in  manners  and  morals  come  about  slowly  and  unmarked.  It  is  the 
American  revisiting  the  country  after  many  years  of  absence  who  perceives  the 
ameliorations  which  the  satiric  pencil  and  pen  have  conjointly  produced ; nor 
are  those  amelioi-ations  hidden  from  the  American  who  treads  for  the  first  time 
the  fast- anchored  isle.  It  is  with  a peculiar  rapturous  recognition  that  we 
hail  every  indication  of  that  England  with  which  English  art  and  literature 
liave  made  us  acquainted — a very  different  country  indeed  from  the  England 


ENGLISH  CARICATURE  OF  THE  PRESENT  CENTURY. 


271 


of  politics  and  the  newspaper.  A student  who  found  himself  one  fine  Sunday 
morning  in  June  gliding  past  the  lovely  Hampshire  coast,  covered  with  farms, 
lawns,  and  villas,  gazed  in  silence  for  a long  time,  and  could  only  relieve  his 
mind  at  last  by  gasping,  “Thomson’s  ‘Seasons?’”  His  first  glance  revealed 
to  him,  what  he  had  never  before  suspected,  that  the  rural  poetry  of  England 
applied  in  a particular  manner  to  the  land  that  inspired  it,  could  have  been 
written  only  there,  and  only  there  could  be  quite  appreciated.  From  Chaucer 
to  Tennyson  there  is  not  a sterling  line  in  it  which  could  have  been  what  it  is 


Hope — A Phrenological  Illustration.  (George  Cruikshank,  1826.) 


if  it  had  been  composed  in  any  part  of  the  Western  continent.  We  have  a 
flower  which  we  call  a daisy,  a weed  coarsened  by  our  fierce  sun,  betraying 
barrenness  of  soil,  and  suggestive  of  careless  culture.  There  is  also  to  be  seen 
in  our  windows  and  greenhouses  a flower  named  the  primrose,  Avhich,  though 
it  has  its  merit,  has  not  been  celebrated  by  poets,  nor  is  likely  to  be.  But  the 
instant  we  see  an  English  road-side  bright  with  primroses  and  daisies,  we  find 
ourselves  saying,  “Yes,  of  course;  these  are  what  the  poets  mean;  this  is  the 
daisy  of  Shakspeare  and  Burns;  here  is  Wordsworth’s  yellow  primrose!” 
And  we  go  on  holding  similar  discourse  with  ourselves  as  often  as  we  descry 
the  objects,  at  once  familiar  and  unknown,  which  in  every  age  the  poets  of 
Great  Britain  have  loved  to  sing. 

But  when,  in  these  recent  days,  the  same  traveler  observes  the  human  life 


272 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


of  English  streets  and  homes  and  public  places,  he  does  not  perceive  so  exact 
a resemblance  to  the  life  portrayed  in  books  and  pictures.  English  life  seems 
gentler  and  better  than  it  was  represented  forty  years  ago ; manners  are  freer 
and  more  cordial;  people  are  less  intemperate;  the  physical  life  is  much  less 
obstreperous ; the  topics  discussed  have  a more  frequent  relation  to  the  higher 
interests  of  human  nature.  The  glory  of  the  last  generation  was  held  to  be 
Waterloo;  the  distinction  of  the  present  one  is  a peaceful  arbitration.  The 
six-bottle  men  of  Sheridan’s  time — where  are  they?  Gone,  quite  gone.  One 
bottle  is  now  almost  as  unusual  as  it  is  excessive.  Gone  is  the  coach,  with  its 
long  train  of  barbarisms  — its  bloated  Wellers,  its  coachmen  who  swallowed 
‘‘  an  imperial  pint  of  vinegar  ” with  their  oysters  without  winking,  its  mount- 
ainous landlord  skillful  in  charging,  its  general  horseyness  and  cumbersome 
inconvenience.  The  hideous  prize-fight  seems  finally  suppressed.  If  there  are 
still  estates  upon  which  there  are  family  cottages  of  one  room,  they  are  held 
in  horror,  and  it  is  an  axiom  accepted  that  the  owner  who  permits  them  to  re- 
main is  a truer  savage  than  the  most  degraded  peasants  who  inhabit  them. 

Art,  humanizing  art,  has  reached  a development  which  a dreamer  of  Ho- 
garth’s day  could  not  have  anticipated  for  any  period  much  short  of  the  mil- 
lennium ; and  not  a development  only,  but  a wide  diffusion.  Chadband — 
where  is  he?  If  he  exists,  he  has  assumed  a less  offensive  form  than  when 
he  eat  muffins  and  sniveled  inanity  in  Mrs.  Snagsby’s  back  room.  Where  are 
Thackeray’s  snobs?  They,  too,  have  not  ceased  to  be,  for  the  foible  which  he 
satirized  is  an  integral  part  of  human  nature,  which  can  be  ennobled,  not  erad- 
icated. Strangers,  however,  do  not  often  observe  those  violent  and  crude  man- 
ifestations of  it  which  Thackeray  describes;  and  there  seems  a likelihood  of 
the  “Book  of  Snobs”  meeting  the  fate  of  Adam  Smith’s  “Wealth  of  Nations,” 
which  made  itself  obsolete  by  accomplishing  its  purposes.  Beer  still  flows 
redundant  in  every  part  of  the  British  Empire.  Nevertheless,  there  is  here 
and  there  a person  who  has  discovered  how  much  more  can  be  got  out  of  life 
by  avoiding  stimulation.  A decided  advance  must  have  been  made  toward 
tolerance  of  opinion  when  men  can  be  borne  to  honorable  burial  in  Westmin- 
ster Abbey  whose  opinions  were  at  variance  with  those  which  built  and  sus- 
tain the  edifice.  Chadbandom  feebly  protests,  but  no  man  regards  it. 

There  are  men  still  alive  who  remember  the  six-bottle  period  and  all  its 
strenuous  vulgarities,  the  period  when  the  whole  strength  of  the  empire  was 
put  forth  in  the  Bonaparte  wars.  William  Chambers,  who  was  born  when 
George  Cruikshank  was  a boy  of  eight,  speaks  of  those  years  as  a time  of  uni- 
versal violence.  Children,  ruled  by  violence  at  home  and  by  cruelty  at  school, 
pummeled  and  bullied  one  another  in  turn,  besides  practicing  habitual  cruelty 
toward  birds  and  beasts,  hunting  cats,  pelting  dogs,  plundering  birds’nests. 
He  tells  us  of  a carter  who  used  to  turn  out  his  horses  to  die  on  the  common 
of  his  native  town,  where  the  boys,  in  the  sight  of  the  people,  and  without  be- 
ing admonished  by  them,  would  daily  amuse  themselves  by  stoning  the  help- 


ENGLIiSH  CARICATURE  OF  THE  PRESENT  CENTURY. 


273 


less  creatures  till  they  had  battered  the  life  out  of  them.  The  news  thai 
roused  the  people  was  all  of  bloodshed  on  land  and  sea.  The  only  pleasures 
that  were  held  to  be  entirely  worthy  of  men  were  hard  riding  and  deep  drink- 
ing. Those  diaries  of  persons  who  flourished  in  the  first  half  of  George  Cruik- 


shank’s  life,  of  which  so  many  volumes  have  been  published  lately — those,  for 
example,  of  Moore,  Greville,  Jerdan,  and  Young — what  are  they  but  a monoto- 
nous record  of  dinner  anecdotes?  Marryat’s  novels  preserve  a popular  exhi- 
bition of  that  fighting  age,  and  we  perceive  from  his  memoirs  that  he  did  not 
exaggerate  its  more  savage  characteristics.  Several  of  his  most  brutal  inci- 
dents were  transcripts  from  his  own  experience. 

18 


274 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


Comic  art,  which  the  amelioration  of  manners  has  purified,  has  done  much 
in  its  turn  to  strengthen  and  diffuse  that  amelioration.  Isaac  Cruikshank  was 
among  the  last  of  the  old  school.  He  seems  to  have  kept  his  pencil  on  hire, 
for  we  have  caricatures  of  his  on  all  sides  of  the  politics  of  his  time,  from  con- 
servative to  radical.  In  1795  he  represented  William  Pitt  as  the  royal  extin- 
guisher  putting  out  the  flame  of  sedition;  but  in  1797  he  exhibited  the  same 
minister  in  the  character  of  a showman  deceiving  the  people  with  regard  to 
the  condition  of  the  country.  “Observe,”  says  “Billy,”  “what  a busy  scene 
presents  itself.  The  ports  are  filled  with  shipping,  riches  are  flowing  in  from 
every  quarter.”  But  the  countrymen  standing  around  declare  that  they  can 
see  nothing  but  “a  woide  plain  with  some  mountains  and  mole-hills  upon’t,” 
and  conjecture  that  the  fine  things  which  Billy  sees  must  be  behind  one  of  the 
mole-hills.  During  the  same  year  we  find  him  caricaturing  Fox,  the  leader  of 
the  Opposition,  as  having  laid  a train  for  the  purpose  of  blowing  up  the  Con- 
stitution, and  then  leaving  to  others  the  risk  of  touching  it  off.  On  both  sides 
of  the  Irish  questions  of  his  day  he  employed  his  pencil,  ridiculing  in  some 
pictures  the  Irish  discontents,  and  in  others  the  measures  proposed  by  minis- 
ters for  quieting  them.  When  the  old  king  was  losing  his  i-eason,  he  drew 
him  as  a “farthing  rush-light,”  around  which  were  the  Prince  of  Wales,  Fox, 
vSheridan,  and  their  friends,  all  trying  to  blow  out  the  flickering  flame.  At 
length,  in  1810,  he  caricatured  the  Burdett  riots  in  a manner  to  jAease  the 
most  “ advanced  ” radical.  This  picture,  however,  may  have  been  a tribute 
to  the  mere  audacity  of  the  member  for  Westminster,  who  barricaded  his 
house  for  four  days  against  the  officers  of  the  House  of  Commons  ordered  to 
arrest  him. 

It  was  wliile  Isaac  Cruikshank  was  occasionally  drawing  such  caricatures 
as  these  that  he  “kindly  allowed”  his  son  George,  “a  mere  boy,”  to  “play  at 
etching  on  some  of  his  copper-plates.”  The  first  real  work  done  by  the  lad 
was  of  a very  modest  character,  but  he  speaks  of  them  in  a way  to  make  us 
regret  that  even  they  should  have  been  lost.  “Many  of  my  first  productions, 
such  as  half-penny  lottery  books  and  books  for  little  children,  can  never  be 
known  or  seen,  having  been  destroyed  long,  long  ago  by  the  dear  little  ones 
who  had  tliem  to  play  with.” 

Men  who  write  so  of  little  children  that  tore  up  their  picture-books  se'venty 
years  before  are  not  formed  for  the  strife  of  politics.  George  Cruikshank 
early  in  life  withdrew  from  political  caricature,  but  not  before  he  had  executed 
a few  pictures  of  which  he  might  reasonably  boast  in  his  old  age,  after  time 
had  justified  their  severity.  This  aged  artist,  who  has  lived  to  see  the  laws 
repealed  which  restricted  the  importation  of  grain  into  England,  was  just 
coming  of  age  when  those  laws  were  passed,  and  he  expressed  his  opinion  of 
them  in  a caricature  called  “The  Blessings  of  Peace;  or.  The  Curse  of  the  Corn 
Bill.”  It  was  in  1815 — the  year  that  consigned  Bonaparte  to  St.  Helena,  and 
gave  peace  to  Europe.  A vessel  laden  with  grain  has  arrived  from  a foreign 


ENGLISH  CARICATURE  OF  THE  PRESENT  CENTURY.  275 

port,  and  the  supercargo,  holding  out  a handful,  says,  Here  is  the  best  for 
fifty  shillings.”  But  on  the  shore  stands  a store-house  filled  with  home-grown 
grain,  tight  shut,  in  front  of  which  is  a group  of  British  land-owners,  one  of 
whom  waves  the  foreign  trader  away, saying:  “We  won’t  have  it  at  any  price. 
We  are  determined  to  keep  up  our  own  to  eighty  shillings,  and  if  the  poor 
can’t  buy  it  at  that  price,  why,  they  must  starve.”  The  foreign  grain  is  thrown 
overboard,  while  a starving  family  looks  on,  and  the  father  says,  “ No,  no,  mas- 
ters, I’ll  not  starve,  but  quit  my  native  country,  where  the  poor  are  crushed  by 
those  they  labor  to  support,  and  retire  to  one  more  hospitable,  and  where  the 
arts  of  the  rich  do  not  interpose  to  defeat  the  providence  of  God.” 

Such  is  the  Protective  System:  an  interested  few,  having  the  ear  of  the 
Government,  thriving  at  the  expense  of  the  many  who  have  not  the  ear  of  the 
Government!  This  young  man  saw  the  point  in  1815  as  clearly  as  Cobden, 
Peel,  or  Mill  in  1846. 

In  the  same  year  he  aimed  a caricature  at  the  ministry  who  took  off  the 
income  tax,  and  lessened  the  taxes  upon  property  without  diminishing  those 
which  bore  more  directly  upon  the  poor.  Many  pictures  in  a similar  spirit 
followed ; but  while  he  was  still  a young  man  he  followed  the  bent  of  his  dis- 
position, and  has  ever  since  employed  his  pencil  in  what  his  great  master  Ho- 
garth once  styled  “moral  comedies,”  wherein  humor  appears  as  the  ally  and 
teacher  of  morals. 

John  Doyle,  who  reigned  next  in  the  shop-windows  of  Great  Britain,  and 
continued  to  bear  sway  for  twenty  years — 1829  to  1849 — was  not  known  by 
name  to  the  generation  which  he  amused.  It  chanced  one  day  that  two  I’s,  in 
a printing-office  where  he  was,  stood  close  to  two  D’s,  and  he  observed  that 
the  conjunction  formed  a figure  resembling  H3.  He  adopted  this  as  the 
mark  or  signature  of  his  caricatures,  and  consequently  he  was  always  spoken 
of  as  H.  B.  down  to  the  time  of  his  death,  which  occurred  about  the  year  1869. 
He,  too,  shared  the  spirit  of  the  better  time.  Collectors  number  his  published 
caricatures  at  nine  hundred  and  seventeen,  which  have  been  re-issued  in  eleven 
volumes ; but  in  none  of  his  works  is  there  any  thing  of  the  savage  vulgarity 
of  the  caricatures  produced  during  the  Bonaparte  wars.  It  was  a custom  with 
English  print-sellers  to  keep  port-folios  of  his  innocent  and  amusing  pictures 
to  let  out  by  the  evening  to  families  about  to  engage  in  the  arduous  work  of 
entertaining  their  friends  at  dinner.  He  excelled  greatly  in  his  portraits, 
many  of  which,  it  is  said  by  contemporaries,  are  the  best  ever  taken  of  the 
noted  men  of  that  day,  and  may  be  safely  accepted  as  historical.  Brougham, 
Peel,  O’Connell,  Hume,  Russell,  Palmerston,  and  others  appear  in  his  works  as 
they  were  in  their  prime,  with  little  distortion  or  exaggeration,  the  humor  of 
the  pictures  being  in  the  situation  portrayed.  Thus,  after  a debate  in  which 
allusion  was  made  to  an  ancient  egg  anecdote,  PB  produced  a caricature  in 
which  the  leaders  of  parties  were  drawn  as  hens  sitting  upon  eggs.  The 
whole  interest  of  the  picture  lies  in  the  speaking  likenesses  of  the  men.  An 


276 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


air  of  refinement  pervades  his  designs.  His  humor  is  not  aggressive.  ■ It  was 
remarked  at  the  time  in  the  Westminster  Remeio  that  tlie  great  hits  of  Gillray, 
on  being  put  up  for  the  first  time  in  Mrs.  Humphrey’s  window,  were  received 
by  the  crowd  witli  shouts  of  approval,  but  that  the  kindlier  humor  of  H3  only 
elicited  silent  smiles. 

Doubtless  the  war  passion  that  raged  throughout  Christendom  in  Gillray’s 

day  had  much  to  do  with 
the  warmth  of  applause 
which  his  works  called 
forth.  But,  in  truth,  the 
vulgar  portion  of  mankind 
appear  to  have  a certain  rel- 
ish of  ail  effective  thrust, 
no  matter  who  may  writhe. 
H3  was  seldom  severer  than 
in  his  picture  called  “ Hand- 
writing on  the  Wall,”  in 
which  ‘‘Silly  Billy”  (as 
William  IV.  was  familiarly 
styled)  is  seen  reading  a 
placard  headed  “ Reform 
Bill,”  and  muttering,  “ Re- 
form Can  that  mean 

me?”  Most  of  his  pieces 
turn  upon  incidents  or  phases 
of  politics  which  would  re- 
quire many  words  to  recall, 
and  then  scarcely  interest  a 
reader  of  to-day.  A carica- 
ture, as  before  remarked,  is 
made  to  be  seen ; it  is  a 
thing  of  the  moment,  and 
for  the  moment,  and  when 
that  moment  is  passed,  it 
must  be  of  exceptional  qual- 


Box  IN  A New  York  Theatre  in  1830. 

“I  observed  in  the  front  row  of  a dress  box  a lady  performing  the 
most  maternal  office  possible,  several  gentlemen  without  their  coats, 
and  a general  air  of  contempt  for  the  decencies  of  life,  certainly  revival  in  WOfds. 

more  than  nsnally  revolting.” — Mrs.  Trollope,  Domestic  Manners 

of  the  Americans,  Seeing  cai’icatures  from 

childhood  has  induced  a habit  in  many  persons  of  surveying  life  in  the  spirit 
of  caricature,  and  has  developed  some  tolerable  private  wielders  of  the  satiric 
pencil.  Mrs.  Trollope  was,  perhaps,  a case  in  point.  Her  volumes  upon  the 
“Domestic  Manners  of  the  Americans,”  the  literary  sensation  of  1832,  were 
illustrated  by  a dozen  or  more  of  very  amusing  caricatures,  some  of  which 
were  fair  hits,  and  were  of  actual  service  in  improving  popular  manners. 


ENGLISH  CARICATURE  OF  THE  PRESENT  CENTURY. 


277 


There  are  persons  still  alive  who  remember  hearing  the  cry  of  “Trollope! 
Trollope !”  raised  in  our  theatres  when  a man  ventured  to  take  off  his  coat  on 
a hot  night,  or  sat  with  his  feet  too  high  in  the  air.*  Her  whole  work,  pict- 
ures and  all,  was  a purposed  political  caricature,  as  she  frankly  confesses  in 
her  preface,  where  she  says  that  her  chief  object  was  to  warn  her  countrymen 
of  “the  jarring  tumult  and  universal  degradation  which  invariably  follow  the 
wild  scheme  of  placing  all  the  power  of  the  State  in  the  hands  of  the  populace.” 
She  was,  besides,  exceedingly  uncomfortable  during  her  three  years’  residence 
in  the  United  States,  except  when  she  was  so  happy  as  to  be  served  by  slaves. 
“ On  entering  a slave  State,”  she  remarks,  “ I was  immediately  comfortable 
and  at  my  ease,  and  felt  that  the  intercourse  between  me  and  those  who 
served  me  was  profitable  to  both  parties  and  painful  to  neither.” 

Besides  the  specimen  of  her  caricaturing  powers  given  in  this  chapter, 
there  are  several  others  which  have,  at  least,  some  interest  as  curiosities  of 
insular  judgment.  Mrs.  Trollope,  the  daughter  of  a clergyman  of  the  English 
Church,  and  the  wife  of  an  English  lawyer  of  aristocratic  family,  entered  the 
United  States,  in  1827,  by  the  Mississippi,  and  spent  a year  or  two  in  its  newly 
settled  valley.  She  saw  the  Western  people  engaged  in  a life-and-death  strug- 
gle with  untamed  nature — the  forest,  wild  men  and  beasts,  the  swamp,  the  flood, 
the  fever,  a trying  climate,  and  interminable  distances.  A partial  conquest  had 
been  won.  Some  fair  towns  had  risen.  A few  counties  were  subdued.  The 
log  school-house  was  a familiar  object.  To  a mind  of  continental  compass,  al- 
though Western  life  was  still  rough,  rude,  and  haggard,  the  prospect  was  hope- 
ful; it  was  evident  that  civilization  was  winning  the  day,  and  was  destined,  in 
the  course  of  a century  or  two,  to  make  the  victory  complete.  The  worst  that 
a person  of  liberal  mind  could  say,  or  can  now  say,  of  such  a scene,  would  be 
this:  “See  what  it  costs  to  transplant  human  families  from  the  parish  to  the 
wilderness  1” 

Even  cabbage  plants  wither  when  only  transferred  from  the  hot-bed  to  the 
garden ; but  the  transplanting  of  families  from  the  organized  society  of  an  old 
country  to  a wild  new  land  is  a process  under  which  all  sicken,  many  degener- 
ate, and  many  die. 

Our  curate’s  daughter,  on  the  contrary,  after  a long  and  close  survey  of 
this  interesting  scene,  could  only  discover  that  life  on  the  banks  of  the  Ohio, 
in  the  twentieth  year  of  their  settlement,  was  neither  as  pleasant,  nor  as  grace- 
ful, nor  as  elegant,  nor  as  clean,  nor  as  convenient  as  it  is  in  an  English  vil- 
lage; and  this  discovery  she  communicated  to  the  world  in  two  volumes,  12mo, 
with  sixteen  illustrations,  very  much  to  the  satisfaction  of  many  English  read- 
ers. This  worthy  and  gifted  lady,  mother  of  worthy  and  gifted  children,  was 

* “In  the  pit  [of  the  Chatham  Theatre,  New  York]  persons  pulled  off  their  coats  in  order  to 

be  cool Gentlemen  keep  their  hats  on  in  the  boxes,  and  in  the  pit  they  make  themselves  in 

every  respect  comfortable.” — Travels  through  North  America  during  the  Years  1825  and  1826, 
p.  145,  by  his  Highness  Bernhard,  Duke  of  Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach. 


278 


CAKICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


Seymour’s  Conception  of  Mr.  Winkle  before  that  Hunter  appeared  in  “Pickwick.”  (Seymour’s 

Sketches,  1834.) 

“ Vot,  eighteen  shillings  for  that  ere  little  pig?  Vy,  I could  buy  it  in  town  for  seven  any  day  !” 

Utterly  baffled  in  her  attempts  to  account  for  the  rudeness  of  Western  life. 
Provisions,  she  says,  were  abundant  in  Cincinnati,  as  many  as  four  thousand 
pigs  being  advertised  sometimes  by  one  man.  The  very  gutters  of  the  town 
ran  blood — the  blood  of  cheap  innumerable  swine.  But  “ the  total  and  uni- 
versal want  of  manners,  both  in  males  and  females,  is  so  remarkable  that  I was 
constantly  endeavoring  to  account  for  it.”  The  people,  she  thought,  had  clear 
and  active  intellects;  their  conversation  was  often  weighty  and  instructive,  oc- 
casionally dull,  but  never  silly.  What  an  unaccountable  thing,  then,  it  was 


ENGLISH  CAKICATURE  OF  THE  PRESENT  CENTURY. 


279 


that  these  dealers  in  the  pig  and  slayers  of  the  bear,  these  subduers  of  the  wil- 
derness and  conquerors  of  Tecumseh,  should  not  bow  with  courtly  grace,  and 
converse  with  the  elegance  and  ease  of  Holland  House ! “There  is  no  charm, 
no  grace,  in  their  conversation,”  she  laments.  “I  very  seldom,  during  my 
whole  stay  in  the  country,  heard  a sentence  elegantly  turned  and  correctly  pro- 
nounced from  the  lips  of  an  American.” 

Such  a thing  it  is  to  be  brought  up  in  an  island  ! Her  volumes,  however, 
are  to  this  day  entertaining,  and  not  devoid  of  historical  value.  There  is  here 
and  there  a passage  which  some  of  us  could  still  read  with  profit,  and  her  mis- 
interpretations are  not  much  more  insular  and  perverse  than  those  of  Dickens. 
N’o  one,  indeed,  yet  knows  much  of  this  mystery  of  transplanting,  in  which  lies 
hidden  the  explanation  of  America. 

Her  first  caricature,  entitled  “Ancient  and  Modern  Republics,”  is  in  two 
scenes.  An  Ancient  Republic  is  represented  as  a noble  Greek,  crowned  with 
fiowers,  reclining  upon  a lounge,  one  hand  resting  upon  the  strings  of  a lyre, 
and  the  other  gracefully  holding  up  a beautiful  cup,  into  which  a lovely  maid- 
en is  squeezing  the  juice  from  a luxuriant  bunch  of  grapes.  A Modern  Repub- 
lic figures  as  a Western  bar-room  politician,  with  his  hat  over  his  eyes,  his 
heels  upon  the  table,  a tumbler  in  his  hand,  a decanter  within  reach,  and  a 
plug  of  tobacco  at  its  side.  We  have  next  a picture  of  a “Philosophical  Mil- 
linery Store”  at  New  Orleans,  in  which  Mrs.  Trollope  delineated  an  astounding 
event — “My  being  introduced  in  form  to  a milliner  !”  She,  a curate’s  daugh- 
ter, introduced  to  a maker  of  bonnets,  who  actually  proved  to  be  a gifted  and 
intelligent  lady  ! A “ Cincinnati  Ball-room  ” reveals  to  us  twenty-two  ladies 
sitting  close  to  the  walls,  the  floor  vacant,  and  all  the  men  gormandizing  at  a 
table  in  the  next  room,  leaving  the  ladies  to  a “sad  and  sulky  repast”  of  trash 
in  plates  held  on  their  laps.  Then  we  are  favored  with  a view  of  a young  lady 
who  is  making  a shirt,  but  is  ashamed  to  pronounce  the  name  of  the  garment 
in  the  presence  of  a man,  and  calls  it  pillow-case.  Whereupon  he  says,  “Now 
that  passes.  Miss  Clarissa ! ’Tis  a pillow-case  for  a giant,  then.  Shall  I guess, 
miss  ?”  To  which  she  sweetly  replies,  “ Quit,  Mr.  Smith  ; behave  yourself,  or 
ril  certainly  be  affronted.” 

Another  picture  represents  some  ladies  about  to  enter  a gallery  of  art  at 
Philadelphia,  in  which  were  exhibited  several  antique  statues.  The  old  woman 
in  attendance  says:  “Now,  ma’am,  now!  this  is  just  the  time  for  you.  No- 
body can  see  you.  Make  haste !”  Mrs.  Trollope  stared  at  her  with  astonish- 
ment, and  asked  her  what  she  meant.  “Only,  ma’am,”  was  the  reply,  “that 
the  ladies  like  to  go  into  that  room  by  themselves,  when  there  be  no  gentlemen 
watching  them.”  Another  picture  presents  to  us  an  American  citizen  of  “ the 
highest  standing”  returning  from  market  at  6 a.m.  with  a huge  basket  of  veg- 
etables on  one  arm  and  a large  ham  carried  in  the  other  hand.  A still  more 
marvelous  picture  is  given.  Mr.  Owen,  father  of  Robert  Dale  Owen,  chal- 
lenged debate  on  his  assertion  that  all  the  religions  ever  promulgated  were 


280 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


equally  false  and  pernicious.  A clergyman  having  accepted  the  challenge,  the 
debate  was  continued  during  fifteen  sessions.  But  what  amazed  Mrs.  Trollope 
was  that  Mr.  Owen  was  listened  to  with  respect ! Nothing  was  thrown  at  him. 
The  benches  were  not  torn  up.  Another  marvel  was  that  neither  of  the  dis- 
putants lost  his  temper,  but  they  remained  excellent  friends,  and  dined  together 
every  day  with  the  utmost  gayety  and  cordiality.  All  this  must  have  seemed 
strange  indeed  to  the  doting  daughter  of  a State  Church  whose  belief  was 
regulated  by  act  of  Parliament. 

A famous  contempoi’ary  of  John  Doyle  and  Mrs.  Trollope  was  Robert  Sey- 
mour, who  will  be  long  re- 
membered for  his  co-opera- 
tion with  Charles  Dickens 
in  the  production  of  the 
first  numbers  of  “Pick- 
wick.” Nothing  can  be 
more  certain  than  that  this 
unfortunate  artist,  who  died 
by  his  own  hand  just  before 
the  second  number  of  the 
work  was  issued,  did  actu- 
ally suggest  the  idea  which 
the  genius  of  Dickens  de- 
veloped into  the  “ Pickwick 
Papers.”  While  Dickens 
was  still  in  the  reporters’ 
gallery  of  the  House  of 
Commons,  Seymour  had  at- 
tained a shop -window  ce- 
lebrity by  a kind  of  picture 
of  which  the  English  peo- 
ple seem  never  to  be  able 
to  get  enough — caricatures 
of  Londoners  attempting 
^ ^ ^ country  sports.  It  appears 

Prouable  Sdggestion  op  the  Fat  Boy  op  the  “Piokwiok  Pa-  •/  i . 

PEES.”  (Seymour’s  Sketches,  1834.)  to  be  accepted  as  an  axiom 

“Walked  twenty  miles  overnight;  up  before  peep  o’  day  again;  England  that  a man  ca- 
got  a capital  place;  fell  fast  asleep;  tide  rose  up  to  my  knees;  my  -no Kip  pf  r^rjnrlnpfino*  hn si- 
hat  was  changed,  my  pockets  pick’t,  and  a fish  run  away  with  my  ” ^ 

hook;  dreamt  of  being  on  a polar  expedition  and  having  my  toes  neSS  successfully  becomes 

an  absurd  and  ludicrous 
object  the  moment  he  gets  upon  a horse  or  fires  at  a bird.  It  seems  to  be 
taken  for  granted  that  horsemanship  and  hunting  belong  to  the  feudal  system, 
and  are  strictly  entailed  in  county  families.  But  as  a man  is  supposed  to  rank 
in  fashionable  circles  according  to  his  mastery  of  those  arts,  great  numbers  of 


ENGLISH  CARICATURE  OF  THE  PRESENT  CENTURY. 


281 


CVSTOMS  I-.NCLYSHE  1849 


(Richard  Doyle,  1849.) 


young  men,  it  seems,  liv^e  but  to  attempt  feats  impossible  except  to  inherited 
skill.  Here  is  the  field  for  such  artists  as  Robert  Seymour,  ‘‘For  whose  use,” 
as  Air. Dickens  wrote,  “I  put  in  Air.  Winkle  expressly,”  and  who  drew  “that 
happy  portrait  of  the  founder  of  the  Pickwick  Club  by  which  he  is  always 
recognized,  and  which  may  be  said  to  have  made  him  a reality.”  Perhaps  as 
many  as  a third  of  the  comic  pictures  published  at  that  period  were  in  the 
Winkle  vein. 

Upon  looking  over  the  sketches  of  Robert  Seymour,  which  used  to  appear 
from  time  to  time  in  the  windows — price  threepence — while  Boz  was  getting 
kis  “Sketches”  through  the  press,  we  perceive  that  Dickens  really  derived 
fruitful  hints  from  this  artist,  besides  the  original  suggestion  of  the  work. 
Air.  Winkle  is  recognizable  in  several  of  them;  Air.  Pickwick’s  figure  occurs 
occasionally ; the  Fat  Boy  is  distinctly  suggested ; the  famous  picnic  scene  is 
anticipated ; and  there  is  much  in  the  spirit  of  the  pictures  to  remind  us  that 


282 


CARICATUKE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


among  the  admiring  crowd  which  they  attracted,  the  author  of  “Pickwick” 
might  often  have  been  found.  Seymour,  however,  gave  him  only  hints.  In 
every  instance  he  has  made  the  suggested  character  or  incident  absolutely  his 
own.  Seymour  only  supplied  a piece  of  copper,  which  the  alchemy  of  genius 
turned  into  gold.  In  Dickens’s  broadest  and  most  boisterous  humor  there  are 
ever  a certain  elegance  and  refinement  of  tone  that  are  wanting  in  Seymoui*, 
Seymour’s  cockney  hunters  being  persons  of  the  Tittlebat  Titmouse  grade,  who 
long  ago  ceased  to  amuse  and  began  to  offend. 

Seymour’s  discovery,  in  the  first  numbers  of  “Pickwick,”  that  it  was  the 
author,  not  the  artist,  who  was  to  dominate  a work  which  was  his  own  concep- 
tion and  long-cherished  dream,  was  probably  among  the  causes  of  his  fatal  de- 
spair. When  he  first  mentioned  to  Chapman  Sd  Hall  his  scheme  of  a Cockney 
Club  ranging  over  England,  he  was  a popular  comic  artist  of  several  years’ 
standing,  and  Charles  Dickens  was  a name  unknown.  Nor  was  it  supposed  to 
be  of  so  very  much  consequence  who  should  write  the  descriptive  matter.  The 
firm  closed  the  bargain  with  Mr.  Seymour  without  having  bestowed  a thought 
upon  the  writer;  and  when  they  had  suggested  the  unknown  “Boz,”  and  pro- 
cured a copy  of  his  “Sketches”  by  way  of  recommendation,  Mrs.  Seymour’s 
remark  was  that,  though  she  could  not  see  any  humor  in  his  writings  herself, 
yet  he  might  do  as  well  as  another,  and  fifteen  pounds  a month  to  a poor  and 
struggling  author  would  be  a little  fortune.  To  a sensitive  and  ambitious 
man,  made  morbid  by  various  hard  usage  such  as  the  men  who  delight  tlie 
world  often  undergo,  it  must  have  been  a cutting  disappointment  to  be  asked, 
in  the  infancy  of  an  enterprise  which  he  deemed  peculiarly  his  own,  to  put 
aside  an  illustration  that  he  had  prepared,  and  make  another  to  suit  the  fan- 
cies of  a subordinate.  It  was  like  requiring  a star  actor  to  omit  his  favorite 
and  most  special  “ business  ” in  order  to  afford  a member  of  the  company  an 
opportunity  to  shine. 

The  biographer  of  Mr.  Dickens  is  naturally  reluctant  to  admit  the  social  in- 
significance in  London,  forty  years  ago,  of  a “ struggling  author,”  and  he  is 
grossly  abusive  of  Mr.  N.  P.  Willis  for  describing  his  hero  as  he  appeared  at 
this  stage  of  his  career.  Mi*.  Willis  visited  him  at  a dismal  building  in  Hoi- 
born,  in  company  with  one  of  Mr.  Dickens’s  publishers,  and  he  gave  a brief 
account  of  what  he  saw,  which  doubtless  was  the  exact  truth.  Willis  was  a 
faithful  chronicler  of  the  minutiae  of  a scene.  He  was  a stickler  for  having  the 
small  facts  correct.  “We  pulled  up,”  he  wrote,  “at  the  entrance  of  a large 
building  used  for  lawyers’  chambers.  I followed  by  a long  flight  of  stairs  to 
an  upper  story,  and  was  ushered  into  an  uncarpeted  and  bleak-looking  room, 
with  a deal  table,  two  or  three  chairs,  and  a few  books,  a small  boy  and  Mr. 
Dickens,  for  the  contents.  I was  only  struck  at  first  with  one  thing  (and  I 
made  a memorandum  of  it  that  evening  as  the  strongest  instance  I had  seen  of 
English  obsequiousness  to  employers) — the  degree  to  which  the  poor  author 
was  overpowered  with  the  honor  of  his  publisher’s  visit.”  He  describes  Dick- 


ENGLISH  CARICATURE  OF  THE  PRESENT  CENTURY. 


283 


ens  as  dressed  rather  in  the  Swiyeller  style,  though  without  Richard’s  swell 
look:  hair  close  cropped,  clothes  jaunty  and  scant,  “the  very  personification  of 
a close  sailer  to  the  wind.”  There  is  nothing  in  this  discreditable  to  the  “ poor 
author,”  and  nothing  which  a person  who  knew  London  then  would  deem  im- 
probable. Is  it  not  a principle  imbedded  in  the  constitution  of  Britons  that 
the  person  who  receives  money  in  small  amounts  for  work  and  labor  done  is 
the  party  obliged,  and  must  stand  hat  in  hand  before  him  who  pays  it? 

Whoever  shall  truly  relate  the  history  of  the  people  of  Great  Britain  in  the 
nineteenth  century  will  not  pass  by  in  silence  the  publication  of  “Pickwick.” 
Cruikshank,  Seymour,  and  Irving,  as  well  as  the  humorists  of  other  times,  had 
nourished  and  molded  the  genius  of  Dickens;  but,  like  all  the  masters  in  art, 
he  so  far  transcended  his  immediate  teachers  that,  even  in  what  he  most  ob- 
viously derived  from  them,  he  was  original.  And  it  is  he,  not  they,  who  is 
justly  hailed  as  the  founder  of  that  benign  school  of  comic  art  which  gives  us 
humor  without  coarseness,  and  satire  without  ill  nature.  It  is  “Pickwick” 
that  marks  the  era,  and  the  sole  interest  which  Seymour’s  sketches  now  possess 
is  in  showing  us  from  what  Charles  Dickens  departed  when  he  founded  the 
Pickwick  Club. 


284 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


CHAPTER  XXiy. 

COMIC  ART  IN  “PUNCH.” 

ONE  happy  consequence  of  the  new  taste  was  the  publication  of  Punchy 
which  has  been  ever  since  the  chief  vehicle  of  caricature  in  England.  As 
long  as  caricature  was  a thing  of  the  shop-windows  only,  its  power  was  re- 
stricted within  narrow  limits.  Since  the  founding  of  Punchy  in  1841,  about 
two  years  after  the  conclusion  of  the  “Pickwick  Papers,”  caricature  has  be- 
come an  element  in  periodical  literature,  from  which  it  will  perhaps  never 
again  be  separated.  And  it  is  the  pictures  in  this  celebrated  paper  which  have 


Till?  Boy  who  chalked  up  “No  Popery  !”  and  then  ran  away  !— Lord  John  Russell  and  the  Bill  for 
PREVENTING  THE  ASSUMPTION  OF  EoOLESIASTIOAL  TiTLES  BY  RoMAN  CATHOLICS.  (Johu  LeOCh,  ill  Punch.) 

Explanation  by  Earl  Russell  in  1874:  “The  object  of  that  bill  was  merely  to  assert  the  supremacy  of  the 
Crown.  It  was  never  intended  to  prosecute Accordingly  a very  clever  artist  represented  me  in  a cari- 

cature as  a boy  who  had  chalked  up  ‘No  Popery’  upon  a wall,  and  then  ran  away.  This  was  a very  fair 

joke When  my  object  had  been  gained,  I had  no  objection  to  the  repeal  of  the  h\W."  —Recollections  and 

Suggestions,  p.  210. 


COMIC  ART  IN  “PUNCH.” 


285 


prolonged  its  life  to  this  day.  It  owes  its  success  chiefly  to  artists.  There 
was  and  is  an  error  in  the  scheme  of  the  work  which  would  have  been  speedily 
fatal  to  it  but  for  the  ever- welcome  pictures  of  Richard  Doyle,  John  Leech, 
John  Tenniel,  Du  Mauricr,  and  their  companions. 

One  of  the  rarest  products  of  the  human  mind  is  a joke  so  good  that  it 
remains  good  when  the  occasion  that  gave  rise  to  it  is  past.  Probably  the 
entire  weekly  harvest  of  wit  and  humor  gathered  from  the  whole  earth  would 


not  fill  a number  of  Punch  with  “good  things;”  and  if  it  did,  no  one  could 
enjoy  so  many  all  at  once,  and  the  surfeit  would  sicken  and  disgust.  The 
mere  sitting-down  for  the  purpose  of  being  funny  in  a certain  number  of  lines 
or  pages  is  death  to  the  comic  powers;  and  hence  it  is  that  a periodical  to 
which  nearly  the  whole  humorous  talent  of  England  has  contributed  is  some- 
times dull  in  its  reading,  and  we  wonder  if  there  can  be  in  any  quarter  of  the 
globe  a person  so  bereft  of  the  means  of  entertainment  as  to  get  quite  through 


286 


CAKICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


one  number.  Once  or  twice  a year,  however,  PimcA  originates  a joke  which 
goes  round  the  world,  and  remains  part  of  the  common  stock  of  that  countless 
host  who  are  indebted  to  their  memory  for  their  jests. 

But  the  pictures  are  almost  always  amusing,  and  often  delightful.  The 
artists  have  the  whole  scene  of  human  life,  public  and  private,  to  draw  from, 
and  they  are  able  by  their  pencils  to  vividly  reproduce  the  occasions  that  gave 
birth  to  their  jokes. 

In  looking  over  the  long  series  of  political  caricatures  by  Leech  and  Ten- 
niel,  which  now  go  back  thirty-three  years,  we  are  struck,  first  of  all,  by  the 
simplicity  of  the  means  which  they  usually  employ  for  giving  a comic  aspect 
to  the  political  situation.  They  reduce  cabinet  ministers  and  other  dignitaries 


Pkeparatoky  Sououl  eor  Young  Ladies.  (John  Leech,  “Follies  of  the  Year,”  Loudoo,  IS&i.y 


many  degrees  in  the  social  scale,  exhibiting  them  as  footmen,  as  boys,  as  police- 
men, as  nurses,  as  circus  performers,  so  that  a certain  comic  effect  is  produced, 
even  if  the  joke  should  go  no  further.  Of  late  years  Mr.  Tenniel  has  often 
reversed  this  device  with  fine  effect  by  raising  mundane  personages  to  celestial 
rank,  and  investing  them  with  a something  more  than  a travesty  of  grandeur. 
It  is  remarkable  how  unfailing  these  simple  devices  are  to  amuse.  Whether 
Mr.  Leech  presents  us  with  Earl  Russell  as  a small  foot-boy  covered  with  but- 
tons, or  Mr.  Tenniel  endows  Queen  Victoria  with  the  majestic  mien  of  Minerva, 
the  public  is  well  pleased,  and  desires  nothing  additional  but  a few  apt  words 
explanatory  of  the  situation.  But,  simple  as  these  devices  may  be,  it  is  only  a 
rarely  gifted  artist  that  can  use  use  them  with  effect.  Between  the  sublime 
and  the  ridiculous  there  is  a whole  step;  but  in  comic  art  there  is  but  a hair’s- 
breadth  between  the  happy  and  the  flat. 

Lord  Brougham  was  supposed  to  be  courting  the  conservatives  when  Leech 


COMIC  ART  IN  “PUNCH. 


287 


began  to  caricature.  The  superserviceable  zeal  of  the  ex-chancellor  was  hit 
very  happily  in  a circus  scene,  in  which  the  Duke  of  Wellington  figures  as  the 
ring-master,  Brougham  as  the  clown,  and  Sir  Robert  Peel  as  the  rider.  The 
clown  says  to  the  ring-master,  “ Now,  Mr.  Wellington,  is  there  any  thing  I can 
run  for  to  fetch — for  to  come — for  to  go — for  to  carry — for  to  bring — for  to 
take?”  etc.  In  another  picture  the  same  uneasy  spirit,  restive  under  his  titled 
and  pensioned  nothingness,  appears  as  “Henry  asking  for  more?''  Again  we 
have  him  dancing  with  the  Wool-sack,  which  is  explained  by  the  words,  “The 
Polka,  a new  Dance,  introducing  the  old  Double  Shuffle.”  And  again  we  see 
him  in  a tap-room,  smoking  a pipe,  with  a pot  of  beer  on  the  table,  looking  on 
with  complacency  while  Mr.  Roebuck  bullies  an  Irish  member.  Brougham 
says,  “ Go  it,  my  little  Roebuck ! Bless  his  little  heart ! I taught  him  to 
bounce  like  that.” 

Russell,  Peel,  Wellington,  O’Connell,  and  Louis  Philippe  were  other  per- 
sonages whom  Mr.  Punch 
often  caricatured  at  that  pe- 
riod of  his  existence,  and  he 
generally  presented  them  in 
a manner  that  still  coincides 
with  public  feeling  in  En- 
gland, and  was  probably  not 
disagreeable  to  the  men 
themselves  at  the  time. 

One  of  Leech’s  hits  was  a 
picture  designed  to  ridicule 
certain  utterances  of  the 
Prince  de  Joinville  concern- 
ing the  possible  invasion  of 
England  in  1845,  when  some 
irritating  conduct  of  the 
French  ministry  had  been 
met  by  Wellington  with 
good  temper  and  firmness. 

The  prince,  as  a boy,  is 
“ squaring  off,”  with  a great 
show  of  fight,  at  the  duke, 
who  stands  with  his  hands 
in  his  pockets,  not  defiant, 
but  serene  and  watchful. 

This  picture  is  perfectly  in 
the  English  taste.  Leech 
liked  to  show  great  Britannia  as  infinitely  able  to  fight,  and  not  so  very  un- 
willing, but  firmly  resolved  not  to  do  so  unless  compelled  by  honor  or  necessity. 


Tue  Quarrel. — England  and  France.  (John  Leech,  1845.) 


ilfasier  Wellington.  “You’re  too  good  a judge  to  hit  me,  you  are !” 
Master  Joinville.  “Am  I ?” 

Master  Wellington.  “Yes,  you  are.” 

Master  Joinville.  “ Oh,  am  I ?” 

Master  Wellington.  “ Yes,  you  are.” 

Master  Joinville.  “Ha!” 

Master  Wellington.  “ Ha  1” 

[Moral — And  they  don't  fight,  after  all. 


288 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


In  these  sixty-nine  volumes  of  Punch  there  is  much  of  the  history  of  our 
time  which  words  alone  could  not  have  preserved.  We  can  trace  in  them  the 
progress  of  ideas,  of  measures,  and  of  men.  The  changes  in  public  feeling 
are  exhibited  which  enabled  Cobden  and  Peel  to  strike  from  British  industry 
the  gilt  fetters  of  protection,  for  Punch  is  only  another  name  for  Public  Opin- 
ion. These  pictures  have  a particular  interest  for  us,  since  we  are  to  travel 
the  same  road  in  due  time,  and  thus,  at  length,  give  Great  Britain  a rival  in 
the  markets  of  the  world.  Nothing  could  be  better  than  Mr.  Leech’s  picture 
showing  Sir  Robert  Peel  as  the  Deaf  Postilion.”  In  a debate  on  the  Corn 
Laws  he  had  said,  I shall  still  pursue  steadily  that  course  which  my  conscience 
tells  me  I should  take;  let  you  and  those  opposite  pursue  what  course  you  think 
right.”  The  picture  shows  us  a post-chaise,  the  body  of  which  has  become  de- 
taclied  from  the  fore-wheels — a mishap  which  the  deaf  postilion  does  not  dis- 
cover, but  goes  trotting  along  as  though  his  horses  were  still  drawing  the  load. 
The  chaise,  named  Protection,  is  occupied  by  Tory  lords,  who  shout  in  vain  to 
the  deaf  postilion.  Again,  we  have  Disraeli  as  a viper  biting  the  file.  Sir  Rob- 
ert. Leech  continued  his  effective  support  of  the  movement  until  the  victory 
was  won,  when  he  designed  a monument  to  the  victor,  consisting  of  a pyramid 
of  large  cheap  loaves  of  bread  crowned  by  the  name  of  Peel. 

The  Puseyite  imbecility  was  as  effectively  satirized  by  Leech  in  1849  as 
the  ritualistic  imitation  has  recently  been  by  Tenniel.  Amei’ican  slavery  came 
in  for  just  rebuke.  As  a retort  to  “some  bunkum”  in  the  American  press  in 
1848,  Mr.  Leech  drew  a picture  of  Liberty  lashing  a negro,  while  Jonathan, 
with  rifle  on  his  arm,  cigar  in  his  mouth,  and  bottle  at  his  side,  says,  “ Oh,  ain’t 
we  a deal  better  than  other  folks ! I guess  we’re  a most  a splendid  example 
to  them  thunderin’  old  monarchies.”  The  language  is  wrong,  of  course;  no 
American  ever  said  “a  deal  better.”  English  attempts  at  American  slang  are 
always  incorrect.  But  the  satire  was  deserved.  Leech  was  far  from  spar- 
ing his  own  country.  Some  readers  must  remember  the  pair  of  pictures  by 
Leech,  in  1849,  entitled  “Pin-money”  and  “ Needle-money,”  one  exhibiting  a 
young  lady’s  boudoir  filled  with  luxurious  and  costly  objects,  and  the  other  a 
poor  needle-woman  in  her  garret  of  desolation,  sewing  by  the  light  of  a soli- 
tary candle  upon  a shirt  for  which  she  is  to  receive  three  half-pence.  In  a 
similar  spirit  was  conceived  a picture  presenting  two  objects  often  seen  in  ag- 
ricultural fairs  in  England — a “Prize  Peasant”  and  a “Prize  Pig:”  the  first 
rewarded  for  sixty  years  of  virtuous  toil  by  a prize  of  two  guineas,  the  owner 
of  the  fat  pig  being  recompensed  by  an  award  of  three  guineas. 

Toward  Louis  Napoleon  Punch  gradually  relented.  At  first  Mr.  Leech 
gave  just  and  strong  expression  to  the  world’s  contempt  for  that  unparalleled 
charlatan ; but  as  he  became  powerful,  and  seemed  to  be  useful  to  Great  Brit- 
ain, Punch  treated  him  with  an  approach  to  respect.  A similar  change  to- 
ward Mr.  Disraeli  is  observable.  Seldom  during  the  first  fifteen  years  of  his 
public  life  was  he  presented  in  a favorable  light.  Upon  his  retirement  from 


COMIC  ART  IN  “PUNCH.” 


289 


office  in  1853,  Leech  satirized  his  malevolent  attacks  upon  the  new  ministry 
very  happily  by  a picture  in  which  he  appears  as  a crossing-sweeper  spattering 
mud  upon  Lord  Russell  and  his  colleagues.  “ Won’t  give  me  any  thing,  won’t 
you?”  says  the  sweeper:  “then  take  that  Nor  did  the  admirable  Leech 
fail  to  mark  the  public  sense  of  Disraeli’s  silence  during  the  long  debates  upon 
the  bill  giving  to  English  Jews  some  of  the  rights  of  citizenship.  In  his  whole 
public  career  there  is  nothing  harder  to  forgive  than  that  ignoble  and  unneces- 
sary abstinence.  During  the  last  few  years  Mr.  Disraeli  has  won  by  sheer  per- 
sistence a certain  solidity  of  position  in  English  politics,  and  Punch  pays  him 
the  respect  due  to  a person  who  represents  a powerful  and  patriotic  party. 

One  quality  of  the  Punch  caricatures  is  worthy  of  particular  regard : they 
are  rarely  severe,  and  never  scurrilous.  The  men  for  whom  Mr.  Leech  enter- 
tained an  antipathy,  such  as  O’Connell,  O’Brien,  Brougham,  and  others,  were 
usually  treated  in  a manner  that  could  not  have  painfully  wounded  their  self- 
love.  We  observe  even  in  the  more  incisive  works  of  Gillray  a certain  bois- 
terous good-humor  that  often  made  their  satire  amusing  to  the  men  satirized. 
Mr.  Rush,  American  minister  in  London  in  1818,  describes  a dinner  party  at 
Mr.  Canning’s,  at  which  the  minister  exhibited  to  his  guests  albums  and  scrap- 
books of  caricature  in  which  he  was  himself  very  freely  handled.  Fox  and 
Burke,  we  are  told,  visited  the  shop  where  Gillray’s  caricatures  were  sold,  and 
while  buying  the  last  hit  at  themselves  would  bandy  jests  with  Mrs.  Hum- 
phrey, the  publisher.  Burke  winced  a little  under  the  lash,  but  the  robuster 
and  larger  Fox  was  rarely  disturbed,  and  behaved  in  the  shop  wdth  such  win- 
ning courtesy  that  Mrs.  Humphrey  pronounced  him  the  peerless  model  of  a gen- 
tleman. Punchy  likewise,  does  not  appear  to  irritate  the  men  whom  he  cari- 
catures. Lord  Brougham  used  to  laugh  at  the  exceedingly  ugly  countenance 
given  him  by  Leech,  and  to  say  that  the  artist,  unable  to  hit  his  likeness,  was 
obliged  to  designate  him  by  his  checked  trousers.  Lord  Russell,  as  we  see, 
does  not  object  to  Leech’s  delineations;  and  Palmerston,  long  a favorite  with 
the  Punch  artists,  may  well  have  been  content  with  their  handsome  treatment 
of  him. 

During  the  last  fifteen  years  Mr.  Tenniel  has  oftenest  supplied  the  political 
cartoon  of  Punch.  His  range  is  not  so  wide  as  that  of  Leech,  but  wdthin  his 
range  he  is  powerful  indeed.  He  has  produced  some  pictures  which  for 
breadth,  strength,  aptness,  good  feeling,  and  finish  have  rarely  been  equaled  in 
their  kind.  He  gives  us  sometimes  such  an  impression  of  his  power  as  we 
fancy  Michael  Angelo  might  have  done  if  he  had  amused  himself  by  drawings 
reflecting  upon  the  politics  of  his  time.  If,  as  the  Quarterly  Remew  lately 
remarked,  Tenniel’s  pictures  are  often  something  less  than  caricature,  being 
wanting  in  the  exuberant  humor  of  his  predecessors,  we  can  also  say  that  they 
are  frequently  much  more  than  caricature.  Mr.  Tenniel  was  an  artist  of  re- 
pute, and  had  furnished  a cartoon  for  the  Westminster  Parliament-house  be- 
fore he  became  identified  with  Punch. 


19 


290 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


“ Obstrdotives.”  (John  Teiiniel,  1870.) 

Mr.  Punch  (to  Bull  A 1).  “Yes,  it’s  all  very  well  to  say  ‘ Go  to  school !’  How  are  they  to  go  to  school  with 
those  people  quarreling  in  the  door-way  ? Why  don’t  you  make  ’em  ‘ move  on  V ” 


111  common  with  John  Leech  and  the  ruling  class  of  England  generally,  Mr. 
Tenniel  was  so  unfortunate  as  to  misinterjiret  the  civil  war  in  America.  He 
was  almost  as  much  mistaken  as  to  its  .nature  and  significance  as  some  of  our 
own  politicians,  who  had  not  his  excuse  of  distance  from  the  scene.  He  began 
well,  however.  His  “Divorce  a Vinculo,”  published  in  January,  1861,  when 
the  news  of  the  secession  of  South  Carolina  reached  England,  was  too  flatter- 
ing to  the  North,  though  correct  as  to  the  attitude  of  the  South.  “Mrs.  Caro- 
lina asserts  her  Right  to  ‘larrup’  her  Nigger”  was  a rough  statement  of  South 
Carolina’s  position,  but  we  can  not  pretend  that  the  Northern  States  objected 
from  any  interest  they  felt  in  the  colored  boy.  On  the  part  of  the  North  it 
was  simply  a war  for  self-preservation.  It  was  as  truly  such  as  if  Scotland  or 
Ireland,  or  both  of  them,  had  seceded  from  England  in  1803,  when  the  Peace 
of  Amiens  was  broken,  and  the  English  people  had  taken  the  liberty  to  object. 
Again,  Mr.  Tenniel  showed  good  feeling  in  admonishing  Lord  Palmerston,  when 
the  war  had  begun,  to  keep  Great  Britain  neutral.  “ Well,  Pam,”  says  Mr. 
Punch  to  his  workman,  “ of  course  I shall  keep  you  on,  but  yon  must  stick  to 
peace-work.”  Nor  could  we  object  to  the  picture  in  May,  1861,  of  Mr.  Lin- 
coln’s poking  the  fire  and  filling  the  room  with  particles  of  soot,  saying,  with 
downcast  look,  “ What  a nice  White  House  this  would  be  if  it  were  not  for 
the  Blacks  1” 


COMIC  ART  IN  “PUNCH. 


291 


But  from  that  time  to  the  end  of  the  war  all  was  misapprehenf^ion  and  per- 
versity. In  July,  1861,  “ Naughty  Jonathan,”  an  ill-favored  little  boy  carry- 
ing a toy  flag,  addresses  the  majesty  of  Britain  thus:  “You  shahiH  interfere, 
mother — and  you  ought  to  be  on  my  side — and  it’s  a great  shame — and  I don’t 
care — and  vou  shall  interfere — and  I won’t  have  it.”  During  the  Mason  and 
Slidell  imbroglio  the  Tenniel  cartoons  were  not  “soothing”  to  the  American 
mind.  “Do  what’s  right,  my  son,”  says  the  burly  sailor.  Jack  Bull,  to  little 
Admiral  Jonathan,  “or  I’ll  blow  you  out  of  the  water.”  Again,  we  have  a 
family  dinner  scene.  John  Bull  at  the  head  of  the  table,  and  Lord  Russell  the 
boy  in  waiting.  Enter  “Captain  Jonathan,  F.N.,”  who  says,  “ Jist  looked  in 
to  see  if  thar’s  any  rebels  he-ari-.”  Upon  which  Mr.  Bull  remarks,  “ Oh,  in- 
deed ! John,  look  after  the  plate-basket,  and  then  fetch  a policeman.”  This 
was  in  allusion  to  a supposed  claim  on  the  part  of  Mr.  Seward  of  a right  to 
search  ships  for  rebel  passengers.  Then  we  have  Mr.  Lincoln  as  a “coon”  in 
a tree,  and  Colonel  Bull  aiming  his  blunderbuss  at  him.  “Air  you  in  earnest, 
colonel?”  asks  the  coon.  “I  am,”  replies  the  mighty  Bull.  “Don’t  fire,”  says 
the  coon  ; “ I’ll  come  down.”  And  accordingly  Mason  and  Slidell  were  speed- 
ily released.  In  a similar  spirit  most  of  the  events  of  the  war  were  treated ; 
and  when  the  war  had  ended,  there  was  still  shown  in  Punchy  as  in  the  En- 


Jeddo  and  Belfast;  ob,  A Puzzle  fob  Japan.  (John  Tenniel,  in  Punch,  1872.) 


Japanese  Embassador.  “ Then  these  people,  your  Grace,  I suppose,  are  heathen  ?” 

Archbishop  of  Canterhurxj.  “On  the  contrary,  your  Excellency  ; those  are  among  our  most  enthusiastic 
religionists.” 


292 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


“At  the  Church-gate.”  (Du  Maurier,  in  1ST2.) 

“So  now  you’ve  been  to  church,  Ethel ! And  which  part  of  it  all  do  you  like  best?” 

“ This  part,  mamma  !” 

glish  press  generally,  the  same  curious,  inexplicable,  and  total  ignorance  of  the 
feelings  of  the  American  people.  What  an  inconceivable  perversity  it  was  to 
attribute  Mr.  Sumner’s  statement  of  the  damage  done  to  the  United  States  by 
the  alliance  which  existed  for  four  years  between  the  owners  of  England  and 
the  masters  of  the  South  to  a Yankee  grab  for  excessive  damages ! In  all  the 
long  catalogue  of  national  misunderstandings  there  is  none  more  I’emarkable 
than  this.  Mr.  Tenniel  from  the  first  derided  the  idea  that  any  particular  dam- 
age had  been  done  by  the  Alabama  and  her  consorts : certainly  there  was  no 
damage,  he  thought,  upon  which  a “claim”  could  be  founded.  “Claim  for 
damages  against  me.^”  cries  big  Britannia,  in  one  of  his  pictures  of  October, 
1865.  “Nonsense,  Columbia;  don’t  be  mean  over  money  matters.” 

All  this  has  now  become  merely  interesting  as  a curiosity  of  misinterpreta- 
tion. The  American  people  know  something  of  England  through  her  art,  her 
literature,  and  press;  but  England  has  extremely  imperfect  means  of  knowing 


COMIC  ART  IN  “PUNCH. 


293 


us.  No  American  periodical,  probably,  circulates  in  Great  Britain  two  hun- 
dred copies.  We  have  no  Dickens,  no  Thackeray,  no  George  Eliot,  no  Punchy 
to  make  our  best  and  our  worst  familiar  in  the  homes  of  Christendom ; and 
what  little  indigenous  literature  we  have  is  more  likely  to  mislead  foreigners 
than  enlighten  them.  Cooper’s  men,  women,  and  Indians,  if  they  ever  existed, 
exist  no  more.  Mr.  Lowell’s  Yankee  is  extinct.  Uncle  Tom  is  now  a free- 
man, raising  his  own  bale  of  cotton.  Mark  Twain  and  Bret  Harte  would  hard- 
ly recognize  their  own  California.  It  is  the  literature,  the  art,  and  the  science 
of  a country  which  make  it  known  to  other  lands ; and  we  shall  have  neither 
of  these  in  adequate  development  until  much  more  of  the  work  is  done  of 
smoothing  off  this  rough  continent,  and  educating  the  people  that  come  to  us, 
at  the  rate  of  a cityful  a month,  from  the  continent  over  the  sea.  At  present 
it  is  nearly  as  much  as  we  can  do  to  find  spelling-books  for  so  many. 

To  most  Americans  the  smaller  pictures  of  Leech  and  others  in  Punchy 
which  gently  satirize  the  foibles  and  fashions  of  the  time,  are  more  interesting 
than  the  political  cartoons.  How  different  the  life  of  the  English  people,  as 
exhibited  in  these  thousands  of  amusing  scenes,  from  the  life  of  America  ! We 
see,  upon  turning  over  a single  volume,  how  much  more  the  English  play  and 
laugh  than  we  do.  It  is  not  merely  that  there  is  a large  class  in  England  who 
have  nothing  to  do  except  to  amuse  themselves,  but  the  whole  people  seem  in- 
terested in  sport,  and  very  frequently  to  abandon  themselves  to  innocent  pleas- 
ures. Here  is  a young  lady  in  the  hunting  field  in  full  gallop,  who  cries  gayly 
to  her  companion, Come  along,  Mr.  Green ; I want  a lead  at  the  brook;” 
which  makes  ‘‘Mr. Green  think  that  women  have  no  business  in  hunting.”  En- 
gland generally  thinks  otherwise,  and  Mr.  Punch  loves  to  exhibit  his  country- 
women “ in  mid-air”  leaping  a ditch,  or  bounding  across  a field  with  huntsmen 
and  hounds  about  them.  He  does  not  object  to  a hunting  parson.  A church- 
warden meets  an  “old  sporting  rector”  on  the  road,  and  says,  “Tell  ye  what 
’tis,  sir,  the  congregation  do  wish  you  wouldn’t  put  that  ’ere  curate  up  in  pul- 
pit; nobody  can’t  hear  un.”  To  which  the  old  sporting  parson  on  his  pony  re- 
plies, “ Well,  Blunt,  the  fact  is,  Tweedler’s  such  a good  fellow  for  parish  work, 
I’m  obliged  to  give  him  a mount  sometimes.”  And  in  the  distance  we  see 
poor  Tweedler  trudging  briskly  along,  umbrella  in  hand,  upon  some  parish  er- 
rand. Another  sporting  picture  shows  us  three  gentlemen  at  dinner,  one  of 
whom  is  a clergyman  whose  mind  is  so  peculiarly  constituted  that  his  thoughts 
run  a little  upon  the  duties  of  his  office.  Perhaps  he  is  Tweedler  himself.  One 
of  the  laymen,  a fox-hunter,  says  to  the  other,  “That  was  a fine  forty  minutes 
yesterday.”  The  other  replies,  “Yes;  didn’t  seem  so  long  either.”  Punch  re- 
marks that  “ the  curate  is  puzzled,  and  wonders,  do  they  refer  to  his  lecture  in 
the  school-room  ?” 

And  what  a part  eating  and  drinking  play  in  English  life  and  English  art ! 
Every  body  appears  to  give  dinners  occasionally,  and  all  the  dealers  in  vegeta- 
bles seem  to  stand  ready  to  serve  as  waiters  at  five  shillings  for  an  evening. 


294 


CARICATUEE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


Food  is  a common  topic  of  conversation,  and  it  is  a civility  for  people  to 
show  an  interest  in  one  another’s  alimentary  pleasures.  Glad  to  see  yer 

feed  so  beautiful,  Mrs.  B ,”  remarks  a portly  host  to  a corpulent  lady, 

his  Christmas  guest.  “ Thank  yer,  Mr.  J — — says  she,  with  knife  and  fork 
at  rest  and  pointing  to  the  ceiling;  “I’m  doin’  lovely.”  Again,  old  Mr. 
Brown,  entertaining  young  Mr.  Green,  says,  with  emphasis,  “That  wine,  sir, 
has  been  in  my  cellar  four-and4wenty  years  come  last  Christmas — four-and- 
twenty  years,  sir !”  To  which  innocent  Mr.  Green,  anxious  to  say  something 
agreeable,  replies,  “Has  it  really,  sir?  What  must  it  have  been  when  it  was 
new?”  Little  Emily  asks  her  mother,  “What  is  capital  punishment?”  Mas- 
ter Harry  replies,  “ Why,  being  locked  up  in  tlie  pantry ! I should  con- 


An  Eakly  (Dii  Maurier,  iu  Punchy  1S72.) 


George.  “ There,  Aunt  Mary ! what  do  you  think  of  that?  I drew  the  horse,  and  Ethel  drew  the  jockey !” 
Aunt  Mary.  “ H’m  ! But  what  would  mamma  say  to  your  drawing  jockeys  on  a Sunday  ?” 

George.  “Ah,  but  look  here  ! We’ve  drawn  him  riding  to  church,  you  know !” 

sider  it  so.”  Even  at  the  theatres,  we  may  infer  from  some  of  the  pict- 
ures, ale  and  porter  are  handed  round  between  the  acts  of  the  play.  In 
one  picture  we  see  two  lovers  looking  upon  the  sky;  poetical  Augustus  says, 
“Look,  Edith!  how  lovely  are  those  fleecy  cloudlets,  dappled  over  the  — ” 
Edith  (not  in  a spirit  of  burlesque)  replies,  “Yes,  ’xactly  like  gravy  wdien  it’s 
getting  cold — isn’t  it?”  Then  we  have  two  gentlemen  in  the  enjoyment  of  a 
little  dinner,  one  of  a long  series  given  in  the  absence  of  the  family  at  Bou- 
logne. The  master  of  the  house  receives  a telegram.  He  reads  it,  heaves  a 
deep  sigh,  and  says,  dolefully,  “ It’s  all  up  !”  Bachelor  friend  asks,  “ What’s 
the  matter?”  Paterfamilias  replies,  “ Telegram  ! She  says  they’ve  arrived 


COMIC  ART  IN  “PUNCH. 


295 


safe  at  Folkestone,  and  will  be  home  about  10.30.”  No  more  little  dinners. 
Only  a wife  and  children  for  comfort.  And  here  are  two  of  Mr.  Du  Maurier’s 
pretty  children  eating  slices  of  bread  too  thinly  spread  with  jam,  and  Ethel 
says,  with  thoughtful  earnestness,  “ I dare  say  the  queen  and  her  courtiers  eat 
a whole  pot  of  jam  every  day,  Harry !”  There  are  many  hundreds  of  pictures 
in  Punch  which  show  a kind  of  solemn  interest  in  the  repair  of  wasted  tissue 
never  seen  in  this  country.  It  is  evident  that  the  English  have  a deep  delight 


in  the  act  of  taking  sustenance  which  is  to  us  unknown.  Mr.  Thackeray  him- 
self, in  speaking  of  an  Englishman’s  first  glass  of  beer  on  returning  home  from 
a long  journey  in  other  lands,  casts  his  eyes,  to  heaven  and  gives  way  to  some- 
thing like  enthusiasm. 

Many  pictures  bring  into  juxtaposition  extremes  of  civilization  rarely  wit- 
nessed in  America.  So  many  traps  are  set  for  ignorance  in  this  country  that  a 
child  can  scarcely  hope  to  get  by  them  all,  and  escape  into  maturity  an  abso- 
lute dolt.  Observe  this  conversation  between  a squire  and  a villager:  “Hob- 
son, they  tell  me  you’ve  taken  your  boy  away  from  the  national  school.  What’s 


296 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


that  for  ?”  “ ’Cause  the  master  ain’t  fit  to  teach  iin.  He  wanted  to  teach  my 

boy  to  spell  taters  with  a P.”  Here,  again,  is  a scene  in  a London  picture-gal- 
lery that  presents  a curious  incongruity.  A group  is  standing  before  one  of 
the  works  of  Ary  Scheffer,  and  an  East-ender,  catalogue  in  hand,  makes  this 
comment  upon  the  artist’s  name:  “’Ary  Scheffer!  Hignorant  fellers,  these 
foreigners.  Bill!  Spells  ’Enery  without  the  Haitch !”  In  New  York  we  have 
doubtless  people  that  would  be  as  incongruous  as  this  in  such  a scene,  but  they 
do  not  visit  picture-galleries.  Nor  have  we  among  us  a photographer  who 
could  essay  to  bring  a smile  to  a sitter’s  face  by  saying,  “Just  look  a little 
pleasant,  miss : think  of  ’^m  j'”  It  is  evident  from  many  hundreds  of  such 
sketches  that  there  are  great  numbers  of  people  in  England  who  exercise  diffi- 
cult callings,  hold  responsible  positions,  dress  in  silk  and  broadcloth,  and  are 
in  many  particulars  accomplished  and  well  equipped  for  the  stress  of  city  life, 
who  are  destitute  of  mental  culture  to  a degree  which  is  associated  in  our 
minds  only  with  squalor  and  degradation. 

The  spirit  of  caste,  which  appears  to  be  only  less  strong  in  England  than  in 
India,  affords  countless  opportunities  to  English  comic  art.  Imagine  a coster- 
monger profusely  and  laboriously  apologizing  to  a well-dressed  passer-by  for 
presuming  to  speak  to  him  in  order  to  let  him  know  that  his  coat-tail  is  burn- 
ing: “You’ll  excuse  my  addressin’  of  you,  sir  — common  man  in  a manner  of 
speakin’ — gen’leman  like  you,  sir — beggin’  pardon  for  takin’  the  liberty,  which 
I should  never  ’a  thought  of  doin’  under  ordinary  succumstances,  sir,  only  you 
didn’t  seem  to  be  aware  on  it,  but  it  struck  me  as  I see  you  agoin’  along  as 
you  were  cifire^  sir  !”  During  the  delivery  of  this  apology  combustion  had  con- 
tinued, and  Brown’s  coat-tail  was  entirely  consumed,  his  box  of  fusees  having 
ignited  some  seconds  before  the  coster- monger  began  his  discoui*se.  A few 
years  ago  Punch  gave  a little  “Sea-side  Drama”  that  illustrates  another  phase 
of  the  same  universal  foible.  Mrs.  De  Tomkyns  to  her  husband:  “Ludovic 
dear,  there’s  Algernon  playing  with  a strange  child!  Do  prevent  it.”  “How 
on  earth  am  I to  prevent  it?”  “Tell  its  parents  Algernon  is  just  recovering 
from  the  scarlet  fever.”  Mr.  De  Tomkyns  accordingly  makes  this  fictitious 
statement  to  the  father  of  the  obnoxious  child,  who  replies,  “It’s  all  riglit,  sir; 
so’s  our  little  girl.”  Punch  hits  it  faii'ly,  too,  in  a pictured  tete-d-tete  between 
Mr.  Shoddy  and  Mrs.  Sharp.  Mr.  Shoddy  remarks,  as  he  sips  his  coffee,  that 
he  never  feels  safe  from  the  ubiquitous  British  snob  until  he  is  south  of  the 
Danube.  To  this  Mrs.  Sharp  responds  by  asking,  “And  what  do  the — a — 
South  Danubians  say,  Mr.  Shoddy  ?” 

The  moral  feeling  of  the  Punch  artists  is  so  generally  sound  that  it  is  sur- 
prising to  find  them  often  taking  the  wrong  and  popular  side  of  the  “ conflict 
of  ages  ” between  mistress  and  maid.  But  if  they  usually  laugh  with  the  mis- 
tress and  at  the  maid,  they  occasionally  laugh  with  the  maid  and  at  the  mis- 
tress; and  truly  the  wildest  absurdity  attributed  to  the  British  servant  seems 
venial  compared  with  the  thoughtless  arrogance  of  the  typical  British  mistress. 


COMIC  ART  IN  “PUNCH. 


297 


Punch  does  not  wholly  neglect  her  morals.  Another  hundred  volumes  or  so 
will  doubtless  bring  her  over  to  Sydney  Smith’s  opinion,  that  all  the  virtues 
and  graces  are  not  to  be  had  for  seven  pounds  per  annum.  It  was  a happy 
retort  upon  “ No  Irish  need  apply,”  to  present  an  English  servant-girl  peremp- 
torily leaving  a place  because  she  had  discovered  that  the  family  was  Irish,  al- 
leging that  her  friends  would  never  forgive  her  if  they  knew  she  had  lived  in 
an  Irish  family.  The  picture,  too,  is  good  of  a pretty  servant  walking  home 
in  the  evening  behind  an  elderly  and  ill-favored  lady  to  “protect”  her  from 
insult.  Pui%ch  wishes  to  know  who  is  to  protect  the  pretty  giil  on  her  return 
through  London  streets  alone.  We  see  also  from  numberless  pictures  that  the 
British  mistress  deems  it  her  right  to  control  the  dress  of  the  British  maid. 
When  crinoline  came  in,  she  thought  it  impudent  in  a servant  to  wear  it;  but 
when  crinoline  went  out,  she  deemed  it  no  less  presuming  in  her  to  lay  it 
aside. 

For  some  years  past  the  pictures  of  children  and  their  ways  by  Mr.  Du 
Maurier  have  been  among  the  most  pleasing  efforts  of  comic  art  in  England. 
There  is  not  the  faintest  intimation  in  them  of  the  malevolent  or  sarcastic.  All 
good  fathers,  all  good  mothers,  and  all  persons  worthy  to  become  such,  delight 
in  them.  They  are  such  pictures  as  we  should  naturally  expect  fi-om  an  artist 
who  was  himself  the  happy  father  of  a houseful  of  happy  children,  and  who 
consequently  looked  upon  all  the  children  of  the  world  in  a fond,  parental 
spiiit.  Surely  no  Bohemian,  no  hapless  dweller  in  a boarding-house,  no  deso- 
late frequenter  of  clubs,  no  one  not  sharing  in  the  social  life  of  his  time,  could 
so  delightfully  represent  and  minister  to  it.  Du  Maurier  vindicates  the  gener- 
ation that  has  produced  Gavarni  and  Woodhull.  He  reminds  us  from  week 
to  week  that  children  are  the  sufficient  compensation  of  virtuous  existence, 
worth  all  the  rest  of  its  honors  and  delights. 

The  recent  agitation  in  England  of  questions  relating  to  religion  has  not 
escaped  the  caricaturist.  For  two  centuries  or  more  the  caricaturists  of  Great 
Britain  have  been  hearty  Protestants,  though  not  long  Puritan,  and  we  still 
find  them  laughing  at  the  fulminations  of  the  testy  old  clergyman  who  lives  in 
the  Vatican.  Nor  have  they  failed  to  reflect  upon  the  too  evident  fact  that 
it  is  the  contentions  of  clergymen  in  England  that  have  blocked  the  way  into 
the  national  school.  The  old-fashioned  penny  broadside,  all  alive  with  figures 
and  words,  has  been  revived  by  “ Gegeef,”  to  promote  the  secularization  of  the 
schools.  In  one  of  them  all  the  parties  to  the  controversy  are  exhibited — the 
candidate  for  the  mastership  of  a Government  school,  who  “ believes  in  Colenso 
and  geology,  but  don’t  mind  teaching  Genesis  to  oblige;”  the  minister  who 
liolds  up  the  text,  “One  faith,  one  baptism,”  but  demands  that  the  baptism 
taught  should  be  his  baptism ; Thomas  Paine,  too,  who  points  to  his  “Age  of 
Reason,”  and  says,  “When  you  finish,  Ashall  have  something  to  say;”  the  com- 
promiser, who  is  willing  to  have  Bible  lessons  given  in  the  schools,  provided 
they  are  given  “without  comment;”  and,  of  course,  the  radical  Bradlaugh, 


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CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


who  demands  secularization  pure  and  simple.  The  same  draughtsman,  whose 
zeal  is  more  manifest  than  his  skill,  has  attempted  to  show,  in  various  penny 
sheets,  that  amidst  all  those  sectarian  conflicts  the  one  true  light  for  the  guid- 
ance of  bewildered  men  is  Science. 

The  only  hit,  however,  in  caricature,  which  these  controversies  have  sug- 
gested is  the  “ Soliloquy  of  a Rationalistic  Chicken.”  It  has  had  great  cur- 
rency in  England  among  the  clergy,  many  of  whom  have  assisted  in  spreading 
it  abroad ; and  even  secularists  have  found  it  passable — as  a caricature.  An- 
other recent  sensation  ” was  the  caricature  by  Mr.  Matt  Morgan,  in  the  Tom- 
ahawk^  which  represented  the  Prince  of  Wales  ^‘‘following'’'’  tlie  ghost  of  his 
predecessor,  George  IV.  It  had  a great  currency  at  the  time,  and  may  have 
served  a good  purpose  in  warning  an  amiable  and  well-disposed  prince  to  be 
more  careful  of  appearances. 


tooi.iLutiiiY  OF  A Kationalistio  CmoKEN.  (S.  J.  Stone,  Loudon,  IStii.) 


How  do  I know  I ever  %oas  inside  ? 

Now  I reflect,  it  is,  I do  maintain, 

Less  than  my  reason,  and  beneath  my  pride, 
To  think  that  I could  dwell 
In  such  a paltry,  miserable  cell 
As  that  old  shell. 

Of  course  I couldn’t ! How  could  / have  lain, 
Body  and  beak  and  feathers,  legs  and  wings, 
And  my  deep  heart’s  sublime  imaginings, 

In  there? 

I meet  the  notion  with  profound  disdain; 

It’s  quite  incredible  ; since  I declare 
(And  I’m  a chicken  that  you  can't  deceive) 
What  I can't  understand  I won't  believe. 


What’s  that  I hear? 

My  mother  cackling  at  me  ! Just  her  waj". 
So  i)rejudiced  and  ignorant  I say; 

So  far  behind  the  wisdom  of  the  day. 


What’s  old  I can't  revere. 

Hark  at  her  ! “ You’re  a silly  chick,  my  dear, 

That’s  quite  as  plain,  alack  ! 

As  is  the  piece  of  shell  upon  your  back  !” 

How  bigoted  ! upon  my  back,  indeed  ! 

I don’t  believe  it’s  there, 

For  I can’t  see  it ; and  I do  declare. 

For  all  her  fond  deceivin’. 

What  I can't  see,  I never  will  believe  in ! 


COMIC  AKT  IN  “PUNCH. 


299 


The  p****e  of  W*^*s  to  K**g  G****e  JV.  {loq.).  “ I’ll  follow  thee  1”— Matt  Moegan,  iu  the  Tomahawk,  ISOT. 


Durino:  the  life-time  of  the  venerable  Cruikshank  comic  art  in  EnMand  has 
won  the  consideration  due  to  a liberal  profession,  and  now  enjoys  a fair  share 
of  reward  as  well  as  honor.  He  found  the  comic  artist  something  of  a Bohe- 
mian ; he  leaves  him  a solvent  and  respectable  householder.  He  may  have 
visited  Gillray  at  work  in  the  little  room  behind  his  publisher’s  shop ; and 
he  doubtless  often  enjoyed  the  elegant  hospitality  of  John  Leech,  one  of  tlie 
first  in  his  branch  of  art  to  attain  the  solid  dignity  of  a front-door  of  his  own. 
It  is  mentioned  to  the  credit  of  Richard  Doyle,  son  of  H3,  that  when  he  re- 
signed his  connection  with  Punch  on  account  of  its  caricatures  of  Wiseman 
and  the  Pope,  he  gave  up  an  income  of  eight  hundred  pounds  a year.  There 
is  no  worthy  circle  in  Great  Britain  where  the  presence  of  a Tenniel,  a Leech, 
a Du  Maurier,  a Doyle,  or  a Cruikshank  would  not  be  felt  as  an  honor  and 
their  society  valued  as  a privilege.  England  owes  them  gratitude  and  homage. 
They  have  not  been  always  right,  but  they  have  nearly  always  meant  to  be. 
Nothing  malign,  nothing  unpatriotic,  nothing  impure,  nothing  mean,  has  borne 
their  signature;  and  in  a vast  majority  of  instances  they  have  led  the  laughter 
of  their  countrymen  so  that  it  harmonized  with  humanity  and  truth. 


300 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


CHAPTER  XXV. 

EARLY  AMERICAN  CARICATURE. 

BEXJAMIX  FRANKLIX  was  the  first  American  caricaturist.  That  pro- 
pensity of  his  to  use  pictures  whenever  he  desired  to  affect  strongly  the 
public  mind  was  an  inheritance  from  the  period  when  only  a very  small  por- 
tion of  the  people  could  read  any  other  than  pictorial  language.  Among  the 
relics  of  his  race  preserved  in  Boston  there  is  an  illustrated  handbill  issued  by 
his  English  uncle  Benjaminj  after  whom  he  was  named,  which  must  have  been 
a familiar  object  to  him  from  the  eighth  year  of  his  age.  Uncle  Benjamin,  a 
London  dyer  when  James  II.  fled  from  England,  wishing  to  strengthen  the  im- 
pression made  by  his  printed  offer  to  “dye  into  colors”  cloth,  silk,  and  India 
calico,  placed  at  the  head  of  bis  bill  a rude  wood-cut  of  an  East  Indian  queen 
taking  a walk,  attended  by  two  servants,  one  bearing  her  train  and  the  other 
holding  over  her  an  umbrella.  At  the  door  of  his  shop,  too,  in  Princes  Street, 
near  Leicester  Fields,  a figure  of  an  Indian  queen  appealed  to  the  passer-by. 

Such  was  the  custom  of  the  time.  The  diffusion  of  knowledge  lessened  the 
importance  of  pictorial  representation ; but  the  mere  date  of  Franklin’s  birth 
— 1706 — explains  in  some  degree  his  habitual  resort  to  it.  Nearly  all  the  an- 
cient books  were  illustrated  in  some  way,  and  nearly  every  ancient  building 
appears  to  have  had  its  “sign.”  When  Franklin  was  a boy  in  Boston  a gilt 
Bible  would  have  directed  him  where  to  buy  his  books,  if  he  had  had  any 
money  to  buy  them  with.  A gilt  sheaf  probably  notified  him  where  to  get 
those  three  historic  rolls  with  which  he  made  his  entry  into  Philadelphia.  The 
figure  of  a mermaid  invited  the  thirsty  wayfarer  to  beer,  and  an  anchor  in- 
formed sailors  where  sea-stores  were  to  be  had.  The  royal  lion  and  unicorn, 
carved  in  wood  or  stone,  marked  public  edifices.  Over  the  door  of  his  father’s 
shop,  where  soap  and  candles  were  sold,  he  saw  a blue  ball,  which  still  exists, 
bearing  the  legible  date  1698.  Why  a blue  ball?  Lie  was  just  the  boy  to  ask 
the  question.  A lad  who  could  not  accept  grace  before  meat  without  wishing 
to  know  why  it  were  not  better  to  say  grace  once  for  all  over  the  barrel  of 
pork,  would  be  likely  to  inquire  what  a blue  ball  had  in  common  with  soap 
and  candles.  His  excellent  but  not  gifted  sire  probably  informed  him  tliat  the 
blue  ball  was  a relic  of  the  time  when  he  had  carried  on  the  business  of  a dyer, 
and  that  he  had  continued  to  use  it  for  his  new  vocation  because  he  “had  it  in 
the  house.”  Benjamin,  the  gifted,  was  the  boy  to  be  dissatisfied  with  this  ex- 


EARLY  AMERICAN  CARICATURE. 


301 


planation,  and  to  suggest  devices  more  in  harmony  with  tlie  industry  carried 
on  within,  so  that  the  very  incongruity  of  his  father’s  sign  may  have  quickened 
his  sense  of  pictorial  effect. 

Franklin  lived  long,  figured  in  a great  variety  of  scenes,  accomplished  many 
notable  things,  and  exhibited  versatility  of  talent — man  of  business,  inventor, 
statesman,  diplomatist,  philosopher;  and  in  each  of  these  characters  he  was  a 
leader  among  leaders ; but  the  ruling  habit  of  his  mind,  his  forte^  the  talent 
that  he  most  loved  to  exercise  and  most  relished  in  others,  was  humor.  He 
began  as  a humorist,  and  he  ended  as  a humorist.  The  first  piece  of  his  ever 
printed  and  the  last  piece  he  ever  wrote  were  both  satirical:  the  first,  the  reck- 
less satire  of  a saucy  apprentice  against  the  magnates  of  his  town ; the  last, 
the  good-tempered  satire  of  a richly  gifted,  benevolent  soul,  cognizant  of  hu- 
man weakness,  but  not  despising  it,  and  intent  only  upon  opening  the  public 
mind  to  unwelcome  truth — as  a mother  makes  a child  laugh  before  inserting 
the  medicine  spoon.  So  dominant  was  this  propensity  in  his  youthful  days, 
that  if  he  had  lived  in  a place  where  it  had  been  possible  to  subsist  by  its  ex- 
ercise, there  had  been  danger  of  his  becoming  a professional  humorist,  merging 
all  the  powers  of  his  incomparable  intellect  in  that  one  gift. 

Imagine  Boston  in  1722,  when  this  remarkable  apprentice  began  to  laugh, 
and  to  make  others  laugh,  at  the  oppressive  solemnities  around  him  and  above 
him.  Then,  as  now,  it  was  a population  industrious  and  moral,  e.xtremely 
addicted  to  routine,  habitually  frugal,  but  capable  of  magnificent  generosity, 
bold  in  business  enterprises,  valiant  in  battle,  but  in  all  the  high  matters  averse 
to  innovation.  Then,  as  now,  the  clergy,  a few  important  families,  and  Har- 
vard College  composed  the  ruling  influence,  against  which  it  was  martyrdom 
to  contend.  But  then,  as  now,  there  were  a few  audacious  spirits  who  rebelled 
against  these  united  powers,  and  carried  their  opposition  very  far,  sometimes 
to  a wild  excess,  and  thus  kept  this  noblest  of  towns  from  sinking  into  an 
inane  respectability.  The  good,  frugal,  steady -going,  tax- paying  citizen,  who 
lays  in  his  coal  in  June  and  buys  a whole  pig  in  December,  would  subdue  the 
world  to  a vast  monotonous  prosperity,  crushing,  intolerable,  if  there  were  no 
one  to  keep  him  and  the  public  in  mind  that,  admirable  as  he  is,  he  does  not 
exhaust  the  possibilities  of  human  nature.  When  we  examine  the  portraits 
of  the  noted  men  of  New  England  of  the  first  century  and  a half  after  the  set- 
tlement, we  observe  in  them  all  a certain  expression  of  acquiescence.  There 
is  no  audacity  in  them.  They  look  like  men  who  could  come  home  from  fight- 
ing the  French  in  Canada,  or  from  chasing  the  whale  among  the  icebergs  of 
Labrador,  to  be  scared  by  the  menaces  of  a pontiff  like  Cotton  Mather.  They 
look  like  men  who  would  take  it  seriously,  and  not  laugh  at  all,  when  Cotton 
Mather  denounced  the  Franklins,  for  poking  fun  at  him  in  their  newspaper, 
as  guilty  of  wickedness  without  a parallel.  “Some  good  men,”  said  he,  “are 
afraid  it  may  provoke  Heaven  to  deal  with  this  place  as  never  any  place  has 
yet  been  dealt  withal.” 


302 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


Never  was  a community  in  such  sore  need  of  caricature  and  burlesque  as 
when  James  Franklin  set  up  in  Boston,  in  1721,  the  first  “sensational  news- 
paper” of  America,  the  Courant^  to  which  his  brother  Benjamin  and  the  other 
rebels  and  come-outers  of  Boston  contributed.  The  Mathers,  as  human  beings 
and  citizens  of  New  England,  were  estimable  and  even  admirable;  but  the  in- 
terests of  human  nature  demand  the  suppression  of  pontiffs.  These  Mathers, 
though  naturally  benevolent,  and  not  wanting  in  natural  modesty,  had  attained 
to  such  a degree  of  pontifical  arrogance  as  to  think  Boston  in  deadly  peril  be- 
cause a knot  of  young  fellows  in  a printing-office  aimed  satirical  paragraphs 
at  them.  Increase  Mather  called  upon  the  Government  to  “suppress  such  a 
cursed  libel,”  lest  “some  awful  judgment  should  come  upon  the  land,  and  the 
wrath  of  God  should  rise,  and  there  should  be  no  remedy.”  It  is  for  such 
men  that  burlesque  was  made,  and  the  Franklins  supplied  it  in  abundance. 
The  Courant  ridiculed  them  even  when  they  were  gloriously  in  the  right. 
They  were  enlightened  enough  and  brave  enough  to  recommend  inoculation, 
then  just  brought  from  Turkey  by  Lady  Mary  Wortley  Montagu.  The  young 
doctors  who  wrote  for  the  paper  assailed  the  new  system,  apparently  for  no 
other  reason  than  because  Increase  and  Cotton  Mather  were  its  chief  de- 
fenders. 

When  Benjamin,  at  the  age  of  sixteen,  began  to  contribute  to  his  brother’s 
paper,  he  aimed  at  higher  game  even  than  the  town  pontiffs.  He  dared  to 
lampoon  Harvard  College  itself,  the  temple  of  learning  where  the  clergy  were 
formed,  whose  precincts  he  had  hoped  to  tread,  his  father  having  dedicated 
this  tenth  son  to  the  Church.  He  may  have  had  his  own  father  in  mind  when 
he  wrote,  in  one  of  his  early  numbers,  that  every  “peasant”  who  had  the 
means  proposed  to  send  one  of  his  children  to  this  famous  place;  and  as  most 
of  them  consulted  their  purses  rather  than  their  children’s  capacities,  the 
greater  number  of  those  who  went  thither  were  little  better  than  blockheads 
and  dunces.  When  he  came  to  speak  of  the  theological  department  of  the 
college,  he  drew  a pen  caricature,  having  then  no  skill  with  the  pencil:  “The 
business  of  those  who  were  employed  in  the  temple  of  theology  being  labo- 
rious and  painful,  I wondered  exceedingly  to  see  so  many  go  toward  it;  but 
while  I was  pondering  ihis  matter  in  my  mind,  I spied  Pecimia  behind  a cur- 
tain, beckoning  to  them  with  her  hand.”  He  draws  another  when  he  says  that 
the  only  remarkable  thing  he  saw  in  this  temple  was  one  Plagius  hard  at  work 
copying  an  eloquent  passage  from  Tillotson’s  works  to  embellish  his  own. 

This  saucy  boy,  who  had  his  “Hudibras”  at  his  tongue’s  end,  carried  the 
satirical  spirit  with  him  to  church  on  Sundays,  and  tried  some  of  the  brethren 
whom  he  saw  there  by  the  Hudibrastic  standard.  Even  after  his  brother 
James  had  been  in  prison  for  his  editorial  conduct,  Benjamin,  who  had  been 
left  in  charge  of  the  paper,  drew  with  his  subeditorial  pen  a caricature  of  a 
“Religious  Knave,  of  all  Knaves  the  Worst:”  A most  strict  Sabbatarian,  an 
exact  observer  not  of  the  day  only,  but  of  the  evening  before  and  the  evening 


EARLY  AMERICAN  CARICATURE. 


303 


after  it;  at  church  conspicuously  devout  and  attentive,  even  ridiculously  so, 
with  his  distorted  countenance  and  awkward  gesticulation.  But  try  and  nail 
him  to  a bargain  ! He  will  dissemble  and  lie,  snuffle  and  whiffle,  overreacl) 
and  defraud,  cut  down  a laborer’s  wages,  and  keep  the  bargain  in  the  letter 
while  violating  its  spirit.  “Don’t  tell  me,”  he  cries;  “a  bargain  is  a bargain. 
You  should  have  looked  to  that  before.  I can’t  help  it  now.”  Such  was  the 
religious  knave  invented  by  the  author  of  “ Hudibras,”  and  borrowed  by  this 
Boston  apprentice,  who  had,  in  all  probability,  never  seen  a character  that 
could  have  fairly  suggested  the  burlesque. 

The  authorities  rose  upon  these  two  audacious  brothers,  and  indicated  how 
much  need  there  was  of  such  a sheet  in  Boston  by  ordering  James  Franklin  to 
print  it  no  more.  They  contrived  to  carry  it  on  a while  in  Benjamin’s  name; 
but  that  sagacious  youth  was  not  long  in  discovering  that  the  Mathers  and 
their  adherents  were  too  strong  for  him,  and  he  took  an  early  opportunity  of 
removing  to  a place  established  on  tlie  principle  of  doing  without  pontiffs. 
But  during  his  long,  illustrious  career  in  Philadelphia  as  editor  and  public  man 
he  constantly  acted  in  the  spirit  of  one  of  the  last  passages  he  wrote  before 
leaving  Boston : “ Pieces  of  pleasantry  and  mirth  have  a secret  charm  in  them 
to  allay  the  heats  and  tumults  of  our  spirits,  and  to  make  a man  forget  his 
restless  resentments.  They  have  a strange  power  in  them  to  hush  disorders 
of  the  soul  and  reduce  us  to  a serene  and  ])lacid  state  of  mind.”  He  was  the 
father  of  our  humorous  literature.  If,  at  the  present  moment,  America  is  con- 
tributing more  to  the  innocent  hilarity  of  mankind  than  other  nations,  it  is 
greatly  due  to  the  happy  influence  of  this  benign  and  liberal  humorist  upon  the 
national  character.  “Poor  Richard,”  be  it  observed,  was  the  great  comic  al- 
manac of  the  country  for  twenty-five  years,  and  it  was  Franklin  who  infused 
tlie  element  of  burlesque  into  American  journalism.  Pie  could  not  advertise  a 
stolen  prayer-book  without  inserting  a joke  to  give  the  advertisement  wings: 
“The  person  who  took  it  is  desired  to  op^it  and  read  the  Eighth  Command- 
ment, and  afterward  return  it  into  the  same  pew  again ; upon  which  no  further 
notice  will  be  taken.” 

This  propensity  was  the  more  precious  because  it  was  his  destiny  to  take 
a leading  part  in  many  controversies  which  would  have  become  bitter  beyond 
endurance  but  for  “the  strange  power”  of  his  “pieces  of  pleasantry  and 
mirth”  to  “hush  disorders  of  the  soul.”  Pie  employed  both  pen  and  pencil  in 
bringing  his  excellent  sense  to  bear  upon  the  public  mind.  What  but  P^rank- 
lin’s  inexhaustible  tact  and  good-humor  could  have  kept  the  peace  in  Pennsyl- 
vania between  the  non-combatant  Quakers  and  the  militant  Christians  during 
the  long  period  when  the  province  was  threatened  from  the  sea  by  hostile  fleets 
and  on  land  by  savnge  Indians?  Besides  rousing  the  combatant  citizens  to  ac- 
tion, he  made  them  willing  to  fight  for  men  who  would  not  fight  for  them- 
selves, and  brought  over  to  his  side  a large  number  of  the  younger  and  more 
pliant  Quakers.  Even  in  that  early  time  (1747),  while  bears  still  swam  the 


304 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


Delaware,  he  contrived  to  get  a picture  drawn  and  engraved  to  enforce  the 
lessons  of  his  first  pamphlet,  calling  on  the  Pennsylvanians  to  prepare  for  de- 
fense. He  may  have  engraved  it  himself,  for  he  had  a dexterous  hand,  and 
had  long  before  made  little  pictures  out  of  type-metal  to  accompany  adver- 
tisements. Hercules  sits  upon  a cloud,  with  one  hand  resting  upon  his  club. 
Three  horses  vainly  strive  to  draw  a heavy  wagon  from  the  mire.  The  wag- 
oner kneels,  lifts  his  hands,  and  implores  the  aid  of  Hercules’s  mighty  arm. 
In  the  background  are  trees  and  houses,  and  under  the  picture  are  Latin  words 
signifying,  “ Not  by  offerings  nor  by  womanish  prayers  is  the  help  of  gods  ob- 
tained.” In  the  text,  too,  when  he  essays  the  difficult  task  of  reconciling  the 
combatants  to  fighting  for  the  non-combatants,  he  becomes  pictorial,  though 
he  does  not  use  the  graver.  “ What !”  he  cries,  “ not  defend  your  wives,  your 
helpless  children,  your  aged  parents,  because  the  Quakers  have  conscientious 
scruples  about  fighting!”  Then  he  adds  the  burlesque  picture:  “Till  of  late 
I could  scarce  believe  the  stoiy  of  him  who  refused  to  pump  in  a sinking  ship 
because  one  on  board  whom  he  hated  would  be  saved  by  it  as  well  as  himself.” 
At  the  beginning  of  the  contest  which  in  Europe  was  the  Seven  Years’ 
War,  but  in  America  a ten  years’  war,  Franklin’s  pen  and  pencil  were  both 

employed  in  urging 
a cordial  union  of 
the  colonies  against 
the  foe.  His  device 
of  a snake  severed 
into  as  many  pieces 
as  there  were  colo- 
nies, with  the  mot- 
to, or  Die^'‘ 

survived  the  occa- 

A Common  Newstaper  Headino  in  1TT6;  deviseb  ey  Franklin  in  May,  1T54,  sion  that  Called  it 
AT  THE  Beginning  of  the  French  War.  forth  and  became  a 

common  newspaper  and  handbill  heading  in  ITTG.  It  was  he,  also,  as  tradition 
reports,  who  exhibited  to  the  unbelieving  farmers  of  Pennsylvania  the  effect 
of  gypsum,  by  writing  with  that  fertilizer  in  large  letters  upon  a field  the 
words  has  been  plastered^''  The  brilliant  green  of  the  grass  which  had 

been  stimulated  by  the  plaster  soon  made  the  words  legible  to  the  passer-by. 
During  his  first  residence  in  London  as  the  representative  of  Pennsylvania  he 
became  intimately  acquainted  with  the  great  artist  fi’om  whom  excellence  in 
the  humorous  art  of  England  dates — William  Hogarth.  The  last  letter  that 
the  dying  Hogarth  received  wus  from  Benjamin  Franklin.  “Receiving  an 
agreeable  letter,”  says  Nichols,  “from  the  American,  Dr.  Franklin,  he  drew  up 
a rough  draught  of  an  answer  to  it.”  Three  hours  after,  Hogarth  was  no 
more. 

A few  of  Franklin’s  devices  for  the  coins  and  paper  money  of  the  young 


JOIN  or  DIE 


EARLY  AMERICAN  CARICATURE. 


305 


republic  have  been  preserved.  He  wished  that  every  coin  and  every  note 
should  say  something  wise  or  cheerful  to  their  endless  succession  of  possessors 
and  scrutinizers.  Collectors  show  the  Franklin  cent  of  1787,  with  its  circle 
of  thirteen  links  and  its  central  words,  “ We  are  onej'^  and  outside  of  these, 
“ United  States.’’’*  On  the  other  side  of  the  coin  there  is  a noonday  sun  blazing 
down  upon  a dial,  with  the  motto,  Mind  your  Business.’’’’  He  made  the  date 
say  something  more  to  the  reader  than  the  number  of  the  year,  by  appending 
to  it  the  word  ^B\igio’’’’  (I  fly).  Another  cent  has  a central  sun  circled  by 
thirteen  stars  and  the  words  ^^JSfova  Constellation’’  He  suggested  ^^Pay  as 
you  go  ” for  a coin  motto.  Some  of  his  designs  for  the  Continental  paper 
money  were  ingenious  and  effective.  Upon  one  dingy  little  note,  issued  dur- 
ing the  storm  and  stress  of  the  Revolution,  we  see  a roughly  executed  picture 
of  a shower  of  rain  falling  upon  a newly  settled  country,  with  a word  of  good 
cheer  under  it,  SerenahiV’’  (It  will  clear).  Upon  another  there  is  a picture 
of  a beaver  gnawing  a huge  oak,  and  the  word  ^^Perseeerando.’’’’  On  another 
there  is  a crown  resting  upon  a pedestal,  and  the  words  ^^Si  recte  facias’’’’  (If 
you  do  uprightly).  There  is  one  which  represents  a hawk  and  stork  fighting, 
with  the  motto  ‘‘'•Exitus  in  diibio  est’’’’  (The  event  is  in  doubt);  and  another 
which  shows  a hand  plucking  branches  from  a tea-plant,  with  the  motto  Sus- 
tain or  Abstain. ’’’’ 

The  famous  scalp  hoax  devised  by  Franklin  during  the  Revolutionary  war, 
for  the  purpose  of  bringing  the  execration  of  civilized  mankind  upon  the  em- 
ployment of  Indians  by  the  English  generals,  was  vividly  pictorial.  Upon  his 
private  printing-press  in  Paris  he  and  his  grandson  struck  off  a leaf  of  an  im- 
aginary newspaper,  which  he  called  a Supplement  to  the  Boston  Independent 
Chronicle.’’’’  For  this  he  wrote  a letter  purporting  to  be  from  “Captain  Ger- 
rish,  of  the  New  England  Militia,”  accompanying  eight  packages  of  “scalps  of 
our  unhappy  country  folks,”  which  he  had  captured  on  a raid  into  the  Indian 
country.  The  captain  sent  with  the  scalps  an  inventory  of  them,  supposed  to 
be  drawn  up  by  one  James  Crawford,  a trader,  for  the  information  of  the  Gov- 
ernor of  Canada.  Neither  Swift  nor  De  Foe  ever  surpassed  the  ingenious  nat- 
uralness of  this  fictitious  inventory.  It  was  indeed  too  natural,  for  it  was  gen- 
erally accepted  as  a genuine  document,  and  would  even  now  deceive  almost 
any  one  who  should  come  upon  it  unawares.  Who  could  suspect  that  these 
“eight  packs  of  scalps,  cured,  dried,  hooped,  and  painted,  with  all  the  Indian 
triumphal  marks”  upon  them,  had  never  existed  except  in  the  imagination  of 
a merry  old  plenipotentiary  in  Paris?  There  were  “ fort}'- three  scalps  of  Con- 
gress soldiers,  stretched  on  black  hoops  four  inches  diameter,  the  inside  of  the 
skin  painted  red,  with  a small  black  spot  to  denote  their  being  killed  with  bul- 
lets;” and  there  were  “sixty-two  farmers,  killed  in  their  houses,  marked  with 
a hoe,  a black  circle  all  around  to  denote  their  being  surprised  in  the  niglit.” 
Other  farmers’  scalps  were  marked  with  “a  little  red  foot,”  to  show  that  they 
stood  upon  their  defense;  and  others  with  “a  little  yellow  flame,”  to  show  that 

20 


306 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


they  had  been  burned  alive.  To  one  scalp  a band  was  fastened,  ‘‘  supposed  to 
be  that  of  a rebel  clergyman,”  Then  there  were  eighty-eight  scalps  of  women, 
and  “ some  hundreds  of  boys  and  girls.”  The  package  last  described  was  “ a 
box  of  birch-bark  containing  twenty-nine  little  infants’  scalps  of  various  sizes, 
small  white  hoops,  white  ground,  no  tears,  and  only  a little  black  knife  in  the 
middle  to  show  they  were  ripped  out  of  their  mothers’  bellies.”  The  trader 
dwells  upon  the  fact  that  most  of  the  farmers  were  young  or  middle-aged, 
there  being  hut  sixty-seven  very  gray  heads  among  them;  which  makes  the 
service  more  essential.”  Every  detail  of  this  supplement  was  worked  out  with 
infinite  ingenuity,  even  to  the  editor’s  postscript,  which  stated  that  the  scalps 
had  just  reached  Boston,  where  thousands  of  people  were  flocking  to  see  them. 

Franklin  was  more  than  a humorist;  he  was  an  artist  in  humor.  In  other 
words,  he  not  only  had  a lively  sense  of  the  absurd  and  the  ludicrous,  but  he 
knew  how  to  exhibit  them  to  others  with  the  utmost  power  and  finish.  His 
grandson,  who  lived  with  him  in  Paris  during  the  Revolutionary  period,  a very 
good  draughtsman,  used  to  illustrate  his  humorous  papers,  and  between  them 
they  produced  highly  entertaining  things,  only  a few  of  which  have  been  gath- 
ered. The  Abbe  Morellet,  one  of  the  gay  circle  who  enjoyed  them,  remarks 
that  in  his  sportive  moods  Franklin  was  “Socrates  mounted  on  a stick,  play- 
ing with  his  children.”  To  this  day,  however,  tliere  are  millions  who  regard 
that  vast  and  somewhat  disorderly  genius,  who  was  one  of  the  least  sordid  and 
most  generous  of  all  recorded  men,  as  the  mere  type  of  penny  prudence.  Even 
so  variously  informed  a person  as  the  author  of  “A  Short  History  of  the  En- 
glish People,”  published  in  1875,  speaks  of  the  “close-fisted  Franklin.” 

It  is  in  vain  that  we  seek  for  specimens  of  colonial  caricature  outside  of  the 
Franklin  circle.  Satirical  pictures  were  doubtless  produced  in  great  numbers, 
and  a few  may  have  been  published ; but  caricature  is  a thing  of  the  moment, 
and  usually  perishes  with  the  moment,  unless  it  is  incorporated  with  a period- 
ical. Almost  all  the  intellectual  product  of  the  colonial  period  that  was  not 
theological  has  some  relation  to  the  wise  and  jovial  Franklin,  the  incompar- 
able American,  the  father  of  his 
country’s  intellectual  life,  wheth- 
er manifested  in  literature,  bur- 
lesque, politics,  invention,  or  sci- 
ence. 

The  Boston  massacre,  as  it 
was  called,  which  was  commem- 
orated by  the  device  of  a row 
of  coffins,  often  employed  before 
and  since,  might  have  been  more 
properly  styled  a street  brawl, 
if  the  mere  presence  of  British 
troops  in  Boston  in  1774  had  not  been  an  outrage  of  international  dimensions. 


Boston  Massacre  Coffins;  Boston,  March,  1774. 

“Anieiicau  Historical  Kecord.”) 


(From 


EARLY  AMERICAN  CARICATURE. 


307 


The  four  victims,  Samuel  Gray,  Samuel  Maverick,  James  Cauldvvell,  and  Cris- 
pus  Attacks,  were  borne  to  the  grave  by  all  that  was  most  distinguished  in  the 
province,  and  the  whole  people  seemed  to  have  either  followed  or  witnessed 
the  procession.  Amidst  the  frenzy  of  the  time,  these  coffin-lids  served  to  ex- 
press and  relieve  the  popular  feeling.  The  subsequent  acquittal  of  the  inno- 
cent soldiers,  who  had  shown  more  forbearance  than  armed  men  usually  do 
when  taunted  and  assailed  by  an  unarmed  crowd,  remains  one  of  the  most 
honorable  of  the  early  records  of  Boston. 

There  were  attempts  at  caricature  during  the  later  years  of  the  Revolu- 
tionary war.  From  1778,  when  inflated  paper,  French  francs,  British  gold,  and 
Hessian  thalers  had  given  the  business  centres  of  the  country  a short,  falla- 
cious prosperity,  there  was  gayety  enough  in  Pliiladelphia  and  Boston.  There 
were  balls  and  parties,  and  sending  to  France  for  articles  of  luxury,  and  pro- 
fusion of  all  kinds — as  there  was  in  the  late  war,  and  as  there  must  be  in  all 
wars  which  are  not  paid  for  till  the  war  is  ever.  There  are  indications  in  the 
old  books  that  the  burlesquing  pencil  was  a familiar  instrument  then  among 
the  merry  lads  of  the  cities  and  towns.  But  their  efforts,  after  having  an- 
swered their  momentary  purpose,  perished. 

And  the  habit  of  burlesque  survived  the  war.  There  are  few  persons,  even 
among  the  zealous  fraternity  of  collectors,  who  are  aware  that  a New  York 
dramatist,  in  the  year  1788,  endeavored  to  burlesque,  in  a regular  five -act 
comedy,  the  violent  debates  which  distracted  all  circles  while  the  acceptance 
of  the  new  Constitution  was  the  question  of  questions.  A copy  or  two  of  this 
comedy,  called  “The  Politician  Outwitted,”  have  been  preserved.  In  lieu  of 
the  lost  pictures,  take  this  brief  scene,  which  exhibits  a violent  squabble  be- 
tween an  inveterate  opponent  of  the  Constitution  and  a burning  patriot  who 
supports  it.  They  enter,  in  proper  comedy  fashion,  after  they  are  in  full 
quarrel. 

Enter  Old  Loveyet  and  Trueman. 

Loveyet.  I tell  you,  it  is  the  most  infernal  scheme  that  ever  was  devised. 

“ Trueman.  And  I tell  you,  sir,  that  your  argument  is  heterodox,  sophistical,  and  most  prepos- 
terously illogical. 

“ Loveyet.  I insist  upon  it,  sir,  you  know  nothing  at  all  about  the  matter ! And  give  me  leave 
to  tell  you,  sir — 

“ Trueman.  What!  Give  you  leave  to  tell  me  I know  nothing  at  all  about  the  matter?  I shall 
do  no  such  thing,  sir.  I’m  not  to  be  governed  by  yonr  ipse  dixit. 

‘•‘■Loveyet.  I desire  none  of  yonr  musty  Latin,  for  I don’t  understand  it,  not  I. 

“ Trueman.  O the  ignorance  of  the  age!  To  oppose  a plan  of  government  like  the  new  Con- 
stitution ! Like  it,  did  I say  ? There  never  was  one  like  it.  Neither  Minos,  Solon,  Lycurgus, 
nor  Romulus  ever  fabricated  so  wise  a system.  Why,  it  is  a political  phenomenon,  a prodigy  of 
legislative  wisdom,  the  fame  of  which  will  soon  extend  ultramundane,  and  astonish  the  nations 
of  the  world  with  its  transcendent  excellence.  To  what  a sublime  height  will  the  superb  edifice 
attain ! 

‘•'■Loveyet.  Your  aspiring  edifice  shall  never  be  erected  in  this  State,  sir. 

“ Trueman.  Mr.  Loveyet,  you  will  not  listen  to  reason.  Only  calmly  attend  one  moment. 


308 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


[Reads.']  ‘We,  the  people  of  the 
United  States,  in  order  to  form  a 
more  perfect  Union,  establish  justice, 
insure  domestic  tranquillity,  pro- 
vide— ’ 

’‘‘'Loveyet.  I tell  you  I won’t 
hear  it. 

“ Trueman.  Mark  all  that. 
[Reads.]  ‘Section  the  First.  All 
legislative  power  herein  granted  shall 
be  vested  in  a Congress  of  the  United 
States,  which  shall  consist  of  a Sen- 
ate and  House  of  Representatives.’ 
Very  judicious  and  salutary,  upon  my 
erudition  ! ‘ Section  the  Second — ’ 

Loveyet.  I’ll  hear  no  more  of 
your  sections.” 

They  continue  the  debate 
until  both  disputants  are  in 
the  white  heat  of  passion. 
Old  Mr.  Loveyet  rushes  away 
at  last  to  break  off  the  match 
between  his  daughter  and 
Trueman’s  son,  and  Trueman 
retorts  by  calling  his  fiery  an- 
tagonist ‘‘a  conceited  sot.” 
This  comedy  is  poor  stuff, 
but  it  suffices  to  reveal  the 
existence  of  the  spirit  of  cari- 
cature among  us  at  that  early 
day,  when  New  York  was  a 
clean,  cobble  - stoned.  Dutch- 
looking town  of  thirty  thou- 
sand inhabitants,  one  of  whom, 
a boy  five  years  of  age,  was 
named  Washington  Irving. 

General  Washington  was 
inaugurated  Pi’esident  at  the 
same  city  in  the  following 
year.  How  often  has  the 
world  been  assured  that  no 
dissentient  voice  was  heard  on 
that  occasion  ! The  arrival  of 
the  general  in  New  York  was 
a i)ageant  which  the  entire 


EARLY  AMERICAN  CARICATURE. 


309 


population  is  supposed  to  have  most  heartily  approved;  and  a very  pleasing 
spectacle  it  must  have  been,  as  seen  from  the  end  of  the  island — the  vessels 
decked  with  flags  and  streamers,  and  the  President’s  stately  barge,  rowed  by 
thirteen  pilots  in  white  uniforms,  advancing  toward  the  city,  surrounded  and 
followed  by  a cloud  of  small  boats,  to  the  thunder  of  great  guns.  But  even 
then,  it  seems,  there  were  a few  who  looked  askance.  At  least  one  caricature 
appeared.  “All  the  world  here,”  wrote  John  Armstrong  to  the  unreconciled 
General  Gates,  “ are  busy  in  collecting  flowers  and  sweets  of  every  kind  to 
amuse  and  delight  the  President.”  People  were  asking  one  another,  he  adds, 
by  what  awe-inspiring  title  the  President  should  be  called,  even  plain  Roger 
Sherman,  of  Connecticut,  regarding  “ His  Excellency  ” as  beneath  the  grandeur 
of  the  oflice.  “Yet,”  says  Armstrong,  “ in  the  midst  of  this  admiration  there 
are  skeptics  who  doubt  its  propriety,  and  wits  who  amuse  themselves  at  its 
extravagance.  The  first  will  grumble  and  the  last  will  laugh,  and  the  Presi- 
dent should  be  prepared  to  meet  the  attacks  of  both  with  firmness  and  good 
nature.  A caricature  has  already  appeared,  called  ‘The  Entry,’  full  of  veiy 
disloyal  and  profane  allusions.”  It  was  by  no  means  a good-natured  picture. 
General  Washington  was  represented  riding  upon  an  ass,  and  held  in  the  arms 
of  his  favorite  man  Billy,  once  huntsman,  then  valet  and  factotum;  Colonel 
David  Humphreys,  the  general’s  aid  and  secretary,  led  the  ass,  singing  hosan- 
nas and  birthday  odes,  one  couplet  of  which  was  legible : 

“ The  glorious  time  has  come  to  pass 
When  David  shall  conduct  an  ass.” 

This  effort  was  more  ill-natured  than  brilliant;  but  the  reader  who  exam- 
ines the  fugitive  publications  of  that  period  will  often  feel  that  the  adulation 
of  the  President  was  such  as  to  provoke  and  justify  severe  caricature.  That 
adulation  was  as  excessive  as  it  was  ill  executed ; and  part  of  the  office  of  cari- 
cature is  to  remind  Philip  that  he  is  a man.  The  numberless  “ verses,”  “ odes,” 
“ tributes,”  “ stanzas,”  “ lines,”  and  “ sonnets  ” addressed  to  President  Washing- 
ton lie  entombed  in  the  dingy  leaves  of  the  old  newspapers;  but  a few  of  the 
epigrams  which  they  provoked  have  been  disinterred,  and  even  some  of  the 
caricatures  are  described  in  the  letters  of  the  time.  Neither  the  verses  nor  the 
pictures  are  at  all  remarkable.  Probably  the  best  caricature  that  appeared 
during  the  administration  of  General  Washington  was  suggested  by  the  re- 
mowal  of  the  national  capital  from  New  York  to  Philadelphia.  Senator  Rob- 
ert Morris,  being  a Philadelphian,  and  having  large  possessions  in  Philadelphia, 
was  popularly  supposed  to  have  procured  the  passage  of  the  measure,  and  ac- 
cordingly the  portly  Senator  is  seen  in  the  picture  carrying  off  upon  his  broad 
shoulders  the  Federal  Hall,  the  windows  of  which  are  crowded  with  members 
of  both  Houses,  some  commending,  others  cursing  this  novel  method  of  re- 
moval. In  the  distance  is  seen  the  old  Paulus  Hook  ferry-house,  at  what  is 
now  Jersey  City,  on  the  roof  of  which  is  the  devil  beckoning  to  the  heavy-laden 


310 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


Morris,  and  crying  to  him,  “This  way,  Bobby.”  The  removal  of  the  capital 
was  a fruitful  theme  for  the  humorists  of  the  day.  Even  then  “N^ew  York 
politicians  ” had  an  ill  name,  and  Congress  was  deemed  well  out  of  their  reach. 

But  those  were  the  halcyon  days  of  the  untried  administration ; to  which 
indeed  there  was  as  yet  nothing  that  could  be  called  an  Opposition.  The  en- 
tire nation,  with  here  and  there  an  individual  exception,  was  in  full  accord 
with  the  feeling  expressed  in  Benjamin  Russell’s  allegory  that  went  “the  round 
of  the  press”  in  1789  and  1190: 

“THE  FEDERAL  SHIP. 

“Just  launched  on  the  Ocean  of  Empire,  the  Ship  Columbia,  GEORGE  WASH- 
ING'rON,  Commander,  which,  after  being  thirteen  years  in  dock,  is  at  length  well 
manned,  and  in  very  good  condition.  The  Ship  is  a first  rate — has  a good  bottom, 
which  all  the  Builders  have  pronounced  sound  and  good.  Some  objection  has  been 
made  to  parts  of  the  tackling,  or  running  rigging,  which,  it  is  supposed,  will  be  altered,  when  they 
shall  be  found  to  be  incommodious,  as  the  Ship  is  able  to  make  very  good  headway  with  them  as 
they  are.  A juy'y  of  Carpenters  have  this  matter  now  under  consideration.  The  Captain  and 
First  Mate  are  universally  esteemed  by  all  the  Owners — Eleven*  in  number — and  she  has  been 
insured,  under  their  direction,  to  make  a good  mooring  in  the  harbor  of  Public  Prosperity  and 
Felicity — whitherto  she  is  bound.  The  Owners  can  furnish,  besides  the  Ship’s  Company,  the  fol- 
lowing materials: — New~Hampshire,  the  Masts  and  Spars;  Massachusetts,  Timber  for  the  Hull, 
Fish,  &c.  ; Connecticut,  Beef  and  Pork  ; New-York,  Porter  and  other  Cabin  stores;  New- Jersey, 
the  Cordage;  Pennsylvania,  Flour  and  Bread; — Delaware,  the  Colors,  and  Clothing  for  the 
Crew;  Maryland,  the  Iron  work  and  small  Anchors;  Virginia,  Tobacco  and  the  Sheet  Anchor; 
South- Carolina,  Rice;  and  Georgia,  Powder  and  small  Provisions.  Thus  found,  may  this  good 
Ship  put  to  sea,  and  the  prayer  of  all  is,  that  God  may  preserve  her,  and  bring  her  in  safety  to 
her  desired  haven'"’ 

The  Government  had  not  been  long  domiciled  in  the  City  of  Brotherly  Love 
before  parties  became  defined  and  party  spirit  acrimonious.  The  popular 
heart  and  hope  and  imagination  were  all  on  the  side  of  revolutionized  France 
in  her  unequal  struggle  with  the  allied  kings.  Conservative  and  “safe”  men 
were  more  and  more  drawn  into  sympathy  with  the  powers  that  were  striving 
to  maintnin  the  established  order,  chief  of  which  was  Great  Britain.  Presi- 
dent Washington,  in  maintaining  the  just  balance  between  the  two  contending 
principles  and  powers,  could  not  but  give  some  dissatisfaction  to  both  political 
parties,  and,  most  of  all,  to  the  one  in  the  warmest  sympathy  with  France.  In 
the  dearth  of  pictorical  relics  of  that  period,  I insert  the  parody  of  the  Atha- 
nasian  creed  annexed,  from  the  National  Gazette  of  Philadelphia,  edited  by 
Freneau,  and  maintained  by  the  fiaends  of  Jefferson  and  Madison: 

“A  NEW  POLITICAL  CREED  FOR  THE  USE  OF  WHOM  IT  MAY  CONCERN. 

“Whoever  would  live  peaceably  in  Philadelphia,  above  all  things  it  is  necessary  that  he  hold 
the  Federal  faith — and  the  Federal  faith  is  this,  that  there  are  two  governing  powers  in  this  coun- 
try, both  equal,  and  yet  one  superior : which  faith  except  every  one  keep  undefiledly,  without 
doubt  he  shall  be  abused  everlastingly. 


* Only  eleven  States  had  accepted  the  Constitution  when  this  was  written. 


EARLY  AMERICAN  CARICATURE. 


311 


“ The  Briton  is  superior  to  the  American,  and  the  American  is  inferiO’i*  to  the  Briton : and  yet 
they  are  equal,  and  the  Briton  shall  govern  the  American. 

“The  Briton,  while  here,  is  commanded  to  obey  the  American,  and  yet  the  American  ought 
to  obey  the  Briton. 

“And  yet  they  ought  not  both  to  be  obedient,  but  only  one  to  be  obedient.  For  there  is  one 
dominion  nominal  of  the  American,  and  another  dominion  real  of  the  Briton. 

“And  yet  there  are  not  two  dominions,  but  only  one  dominion. 

“For  like  as  we  are  compelled  by  the  British  constitution  book  to  acknowledge  that  subjects 
must  submit  themselves  to  their  rnonarchs,  and  be  obedient  to  them  in  all  things : 

“So  we  are  forbid  by  our  Federal  executive  to  say  that  we  are  at  all  influenced  by  our  treaty 
with  France,  or  to  pay  regard  to  what  it  enforceth : 

“The  American  was  created  for  the  Briton,  and  the  Briton  for  the  American : 

“And  yet  the  American  shall  be  a slave  to  the  Briton,  and  the  Briton  the  tyrant  of  the  Amer- 
ican. 

“And  Britons  are  of  three  denominations,  and  yet  only  of  one  soul,  nature,  and  subsistency : 

“ The  Irishman  of  infinite  impudence  : 

“ The  Scotchman  of  cunning  most  inscrutable  : 

“And  the  Englishman  of  impertinence  altogether  insupportable: 

“ The  only  true  and  honorable  gentlemen  of  this  our  blessed  country. 

“ He,  therefore,  that  would  live  in  quiet,  must  thus  think  of  the  Briton  and  the  American. 

“ It  is  furthermore  necessary  that  every  good  American  should  believe  in  the  infallibility  of  the 
executive,  wlien  its  proclamations  are  echoed  by  Britons : 

“For  the  true  faith  is,  that  we  believe  and  confess  that  the  Government  is  fallible  and  infallible: 
“Fallible  in  its  republican  nature,  and  infollible  in  its  monarchical  tendency,  erring  in  its  state 
of  individuality,  and  unerring  in  its  Federal  complexity. 

“So  that  though  it  be  both  fallible  and  infallible,  yet  it  is  not  twain,  but  one  government  only, 
as  having  consolidated  all  state  dominion,  in  order  to  rule  with  sway  uncontrolled. 

“ This  is  the  true  Federal  faith,  which  except  a man  believe  and  practice  faithfully,  beyond  all 
doubt  he  shall  be  cursed  perpetually.” 

A rude  but  very  curious  specimen  of  the  caricature  of  the  early  time  is 
given  on  the  next  page  of  the  collision  on  the  floor  of  the  House  of  Represent- 
atives between  Matthew  Lyon  and  Roger  Griswold,  both  representatives  from 
Connecticut.  Lyon,  a native  of  Ireland,  was  an  ardent  Republican,  who  played  a 
conspicuous  part  in  politics  during  the  final  struggle  between  the  Republicans 
and  the  Federalists.  Roger  Griswold,  on  the  contrary,  a member  of  an  old 
and  distinguished  Connecticut  family,  a graduate  of  its  ancient  college,  and  a 
member  of  its  really  illustrious  bar,  was  a pronounced  Federalist.  He  was  also 
a gentleman  who  had  no  natural  relish  for  a strong-minded,  unlettered  emigrant 
who  founded  a town  in  his  new  country,  built  mills  and  foundries,  invented 
processes,  established  a newspaper,  and  was  elected  to  Congress.  If  Hamilton 
and  Griswold  and  the  other  extreme  Federalists  had  had  their  way  in  this 
country,  there  would  have  been  no  Matthew  Lyons  among  us  to  create  a new 
world  for  mankind,  and  begin  the  development  of  a better  political  system. 
Nor,  indeed,  was  Matthew  Lyon  sufficiently  tolerant  of  the  old  and  tried  meth- 
ods that  had  become  inadequate.  He  was  not  likely,  either  — at  the  age  of 
fifty -two,  standing  upon  the  summit  of  a very  successful  career,  which  was 
wholly  his  own  work — to  regard  as  equal  to  himself  a man  of  thirty -six,  who 


312 


CAKICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


I'lCiUT  IN  CONGKK88  HKTVVICEN  LyON  AND  GIU8WOLI),  FEBRUARY  15tU, 


“He  ill  a trice  struck  Griswold  thrice 
Upou  his  head,  enraged,  sir  ; 

Who  seized  the  tongs  to  ease  his  wrongs, 

And  Griswold  thus  engaged,  sir.” 

seemed  to  owe  his  importance  chiefly  to  his  lineage.  So  here  was  a broad 
basis  for  an  antipatliy  which  the  strife  of  politics  could  easily  aggravate  into 
an  aversion  extreme  and  fiery — fiery,  at  least,  on  the  part  of  the  Irishman. 

Imagine  this  process  complete,  and  the  House,  on  the  last  day  of  the  year 
1798,  in  languid  session,  balloting.  The  two  members  were  standing  near 
one  another  outside  the  bar,  when  Griswold  made  taunting  allusion  to  an  old 
“campaign  story”  of  Matthew  Lyon’s  having  been  sentenced  to  wear  a wood- 
en sword  for  cowardice  in  the  field.  Lyon,  in  a fury,  spit  in  Griswold’s  face. 
Instantly  the  House  was  in  an  uproar;  and  although  the  impetuous  Lyon  apol- 
ogized to  the  House,  he  only  escaped  expulsion,  after  eleven  days’  debate, 
through  the  constitutional  requirement  of  a two-thirds  vote.  This  affair  called 
forth  a caricature  in  which  the  Irish  member  was  depicted  as  a lion  standing 
on  his  hind-legs  wearing  a wooden  sword,  while  Griswold,  handkerchief  in 
hand,  exclaims,  “ What  a beastly  action  !” 

The  vote  for  expulsion  — 62  to  44  — did  not  satisfy  Mr.  Griswold.  Four 
days  after  the  vote  occurred  the  outrageous  scene  rudely  delineated  in  the 
picture  already  mentioned.  Griswold,  armed  with  what  the  Republican  editor 
called  “a  stout  hickory  club,”  and  the  Federalist  editor  a “hickory  stick,”  as- 
saulted Lyon  while  he  was  sitting  at  his  desk,  striking  him  on  the  head  and 
shoulders  several  times  before  he  could  extricate  himself.  But  at  last  Lyon 


EAKLY  AMERICAN  CARICATURE. 


313 


got  upon  his  feet,  and,  seizing  the  tongs,  rushed  upon  the  enemy.  This  is  the 
moment  selected  by  the  artist.  They  soon  after  closed  and  fell  to  the  floor, 
where  they  enjoyed  a good  “rough-and-tumble”  fight,  until  members  pulled 
them  apart.  A few  minutes  after  they  chanced  to  meet  again  at  the  “ water 
table,”  near  one  of  the  doors.  Lyon  was  now  provided  with  a stick,  but  Gris- 
wold had  none.  “Their  eyes  no  sooner  met,”  says  the  Federalist  reporter, 
“ than  Mr.  Lyon  sprung  to  attack  Mr.  Griswold.”  A member  handed  Griswold 
a stick,  and  there  was  a fair  prospect  of  another  fight,  when  the  Speaker  inter- 
fered with  so  much  enei’gy  that  the  antagonists  were  again  torn  apart.  The 
battle  was  not  renewed  on  the  floor  of  Congress. 

But  it  was  continued  elsewhere.  Under  that  amazing  sedition  law  of  the 
Federalists,  Lyon  was  tried  a few  months  after  for  saying  in  his  newspaper 
that  President  Adams  had  an  “ unbounded  thirst  for  ridiculous  pomp,”  had 
turned  men  out  of  office  for  their  opinions,  and  had  written  “a  bullying  mes- 
sage” upon  the  French  imbroglio  of  1798.  He  was  found  guilty,  sentenced  to 
pay  a fine  of  a thousand  dollars,  besides  the  heavy  costs  of  the  prosecution,  to 
be  imprisoned  four  months,  and  to  continue  in  confinement  until  the  tine  was 
paid.  Of  course  the  people  of  his  district  stood  by  him,  and,  while  he  was  in 
prison,  re-elected  him  to  Congress  by  a great  majority;  and  his  fine  was  repaid 
to  his  heirs  in  1840  by  Congress,  with  forty-two  years’  interest.  These  events 
made  a prodigious  stir  in  their  time.  Matthew  Lyon’s  presence  in  the  House 
of  Representatives,  his  demeanor  there,  and  his  triumphal  return  from  prison 
to  Congress,  were  the  first  distinct  notification  to  parties  interested  that  the 
sceptre  was  passing  from  the  Few  to  the  Many. 

Tlie  satire  and  burlesque  of  the  Jeffersonian  period,  from  1798  to  1809, 
were  abundant  in  quantity,  if  not  of  shining  excellence.  To  the  reader  of  the 
present  day  all  savors  of  burlesque  in  the  political  utterances  of  that  time,  so 
preposterously  violent  were  partisans  on  both  sides.  It  is  impossible  to  take  a 
serious  view  of  the  case  of  an  editor  who  could  make  it  a matter  of  boasting 
that  he  had  opposed  the  Republican  measures  for  eight  years  “ without  a sin- 
gle exception.”  The  press,  indeed,  had  then  no  independent  life ; it  was  the 
minion  and  slave  of  party.  It  is  only  in  our  own  day  that  the  press  begins  to 
exist  for  its  own  sake,  and  descant  with  reasonable  freedom  on  topics  other 
than  the  Importance  of  Early  Rising  and  the  Customs  of  the  Chinese.  The 
reader  would  neither  be  edified  nor  amused  by  seeing  Mr.  Jefferson  kneeling 
before  a stumpy  pillar  labeled  “Altar  of  Gallic  Despotism,”  upon  which  are 
Paine’s  “Age  of  Reason”  and  the  works  of  Rousseau,  Voltaire,  and  Helvetius, 
witli  the  demon  of  the  French  Revolution  crouching  behind  it,  and  the  Ameri- 
can eagle  soaring  aloft,  bearing  in  its  talons  the  Constitution  and  the  independ- 
ence of  the  United  States.  Pictures  of  that  nature,  of  great  size,  crowded 
with  objects,  emblems,  and  sentences — an  elaborate  blending  of  burlesque,  alle- 
gory, and  enigma — were  so  much  valued  by  that  generation  that  some  of  them 
were  engraved  upon  coj)per. 


314 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


On  the  day  of  the  inauguration  of  Thomas  Jefferson  as  President  of  the 
United  States,  March  4th,  1801,  a parody  appeared  in  the  Gentinel  of  Boston, 
a Federalist  paper  of  great  note  in  its  time,  which  may  serve  our  purpose  here: 

Ulonumental  Snscription. 

“ That  life  is  long  which  answers  Life's  great  end." 


Yesterday  expired,  deeply  regretted  by  millions  of  grateful  Americans, 
and  by  all  good  men, 

THE  FEDERAL  ADMINISTRATION  OF  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES : 

animated  by 

A WASHINGTON,  AN  ADAMS,  A HAMILTON,  KNOX,  PICKERING,  WOLCOTT, 
M‘HENRY,  MARSHALL,  STODDERT,  AND  DEXTER. 

-^t.  12  years. 


Its  death  was  occasioned  by  the  secret  arts  and  open  violence 
of  foreign  and  domestic  demagogues  : 

Notwithstanding  its  whole  life  was  devoted  to  the  performance  of  every  duty  to  promote 
the  Union,  Credit,  Peace,  Prosperity,  Honor, 
and  Felicity  of  its  Country. 


At  its  birth,  it  found  the  Union  of  the  States  dissolving  like  a rope  of  snow  ; 
It  hath  left  it  stronger  than  the  threefold  cord. 


It  found  the  United  States  bankrupts  in  estate  and  reputation  ; 

It  hath  left  them  unbounded  in  credit,  and  respected  throughout  the  world. 
It  found  the  Treasuries  of  the  United  States  and  Individual  States  empty; 

It  hath  left  them  full  and  overflowing. 

It  found  all  the  evidences  of  public  debts  worthless  as  rags ; 

It  hath  left  them  more  valuable  than  gold  and  silver. 


It  found  the  United  States  at  war  with  the  Indian  nations  ; 

It  hath  concluded  peace  with  them  all. 

It  found  the  aboriginals  of  the  soil  inveterate  enemies  of  the  whites ; 

It  hath  exercised  toward  them  justice  and  generosity,  and  hath  left  them  fast  friends. 

It  found  Great  Britain  in  possession  of  all  the  frontier  posts  ; 

It  hath  demanded  their  surrender,  and  it  leaves  them  in  the  possession  of  the  United  States. 
It  found  the  American  sea-coast  utterly  defenseless  ; 

It  hath  left  it  fortified. 

It  found  our  arsenals  empty,  and  magazines  decaying ; 

It  hath  left  them  full  of  ammunition  and  warlike  imjfiements. 

It  found  our  country  dependent  on  foreign  nations  for  engines  of  defense ; 

It  hath  left  manufactories  of  cannon  and  musquets  in  full  work. 

It  found  the  American  Nation  at  war  with  Algiers,  Tunis,  and  Tripoli  ; 

It  hath  made  peace  with  them  all. 

It  found  American  freemen  in  Tui  kish  slavery,  where  they  had  languished  in  chains  for  years ; 
It  hath  ransomed  them  and  set  them  free. 


EARLY  AMERICAN  CARICATURE. 


315 


It  found  the  war-worn,  invalid  soldier  starving  from  want ; or,  like  Belisarius,  begging  his  refuse- 

meat  from  door  to  door  ; 

It  hath  left  ample  provision  for  the  regular  payment  of  his  pension. 


It  found  the  commerce  of  our  country  confined  almost  to  coasting  craft ; 

It  hath  left  it  whitening  every  sea  with  its  canvas,  and  cheering  every  clime  with  its  stars. 

It  found  our  mechanics  and  manufacturers  idle  in  the  streets  for  want  of  employ ; 

It  hath  left  them  full  of  business,  prosperous,  contented,  and  happy. 

It  found  the  yeomanry  of  the  country  oppressed  with  unequal  taxes;  their  farms,  houses,  and 
barns  decaying ; their  cattle  selling  at  the  sign-posts ; and  they  driven  to 
desperation  and  rebellion  ; 

It  hath  left  their  coffers  in  cash,  their  houses  in  repair,  their  barns  full,  their  farms  over- 
stocked, and  their  produce  commanding  ready  money  and  a high  price. 

In  short,  it  found  them  poor,  indigent  malcontents ; 

It  hath  left  them  wealthy  friends  to  order  and  good  government. 


It  found  the  United  States  deeply  in  debt  to  France  and  Holland ; 

It  hath  paid  all  the  demands  of  the  former,  and  the  principal  part  of  the  latter. 

It  found  the  country  in  a ruinous  alliance  with  France ; 

It  hath  honorably  dissolved  the  connection,  and  set  us  free. 

It  found  the  United  States  without  a swivel  on  float  for  their  defense ; 

It  hath  left  a Navy — composed  of  34  ships  of  war,  mounting  918  guns,  and  manned  by  7350 

gallant  tars. 


It  found  the  exports  of  onr  country  a mere  song  in  value; 

It  hath  left  them  worth  above  seventy  millions  of  dollars  per  annum. 

In  one  word,  it  found  America  disunited,  poor,  insolvent,  weak,  discontented,  and  wretched; 

It  hath  left  her  united,  wealthy,  respectable,  strong,  happy,  and  prosperous. 

Let  the  faithful  historian,  in  after-times,  say  these  things  of  its  successor,  if  he  can. 

And  yet,  notwithstanding  all  these  services  and  blessings,  there  are  found  many,  very  many,  weak, 
degenerate  sons,  who,  lost  to  virtue,  to  gratitude,  and  patriotism, 
openly  exult  that  this  Administration  is  no  more,  and 
that  the  “Sun  of  Federalism  is  set  forever.” 

“ Oh  shame,  where  is  thy  blush  ?" 


AS  ONE  TRIBUTE  OF  GRATITUDE  IN  THESE  TIMES,  THIS  MONUMENT  OF  THE  TALENTS  AND 
SERVICES  OF  THE  DECEASED  IS  RAISED  BY 


March  Uh,  1801. 


Bt)s  Sentinel. 


The  victorious  Republicans,  if  less  skillful  than  their  adversaries  in  the 
burlesque  arts,  had  their  own  methods  of  parrying  and  returning  such  assaults 
as  this.  At  an  earlier  period  in  Mr.  Jefferson’s  ascendency,  the  politicians,  bor- 
rowing the  idea  from  Catholic  times,  employed  stuffed  figures  and  burlesque 
processions  in  lieu  of  caricature.  While  the  people  were  still  in  warm  symipa- 
thy  with  the  French  Revolution,  William  Smith,  a Representative  in  Congress 
from  South  Carolina,  gave  deep  offense  to  many  of  his  constituents  by  oppos- 
ing certain  resolutions  offered  by  “ Citizen  Madison  ” expressive  of  that  sym- 


316 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


patby.  There  was  no  burlesque  artist  then  in  South  Carolina,  but  the  Demo- 
crats of  Charleston  contrived,  notwithstanding,  to  caricature  the  offender  and 
“his  infernal  junto.”  A platform  was  erected  in  an  open  place  in  Charleston, 
upon  which  was  exhibited  to  a noisy  crowd,  from  early  in  the  morning  until 
three  in  the  afternoon,  a rare  assemblage  of  figures : A woman  representing 
the  Genius  of  Britain  inviting  the  recreant  Representatives  to  share  the  wages 
of  her  iniquity;  William  Smith  advancing  toward  her  with  eager  steps,  his 
right  hand  stretched  out  to  receive  his  portion,  in  his  left  holding  a paper 
upon  which  was  written  Six  per  cents^"'  and  wearing  upon  his  breast  another 
with  “£40,000  in  the  Funds  f Benedict  Arnold  with  his  hand  full  of  checks 
and  bills;  Fisher  Ames  labeled  “£400,000  in  the  Funds the  devil  and 
“ Young  Pitt”  goading  on  the  reprobate  Americans.  In  front  of  the  stage  was 
a gallows  for  the  due  hanging  and  burning  of  these  figures  when  the  crowd 


were  tired  of  gazing  upon 
them.  Each  of  the  char- 
acters was  provided  with  a 
label  exhibiting  an  appropri- 
ate sentiment.  The  odious 
Smith  was  made  to  confess 
that  his  sentence  was  just: 
“ The  love  of  gold,  a foreign 
education,  and  foreign  con- 
nections damn  me.”  “ Young 
Pitt”  owned  to  having  let 
loose  the  Algerines  upon  the 
Americans,  and  Fisher  Ames 
confessed  that  from  the  time 
when  he  began  life  as  a horse- 
jockey  his  ^^Ames  had  been 
villainy.” 

It  is  an  objection  to  this 
kind  of  caricature  that  the 
weather  may  interfere  with  its  proper  presentation.  A shower  of  rain  oblit- 
erated most  of  those  labels,  and  left  the  figures  themselves  in  a reduced  and 
dra2T2:led  condition.  But,  according  to  the  local  historian,  the  exhibition  was 
continued,  “to  the  great  mirth  and  entertainment  of  the  boys,  who  would  not 
quit  the  field  until  a total  demolition  of  the  figures  took  place,”  nor  “ before 
they  had  taken  down  the  breeches  of  the  effigy  of  the  Representative  of  this 
State  and  given  him  repeated  castigations.”  In  the  evening  the  colors  of 
Great  Britain  were  dipped  in  oil  and  French  brandy,  and  burned  at  the  same 
fire  which  had  consumed  the  effigies. 

Later  in  the  Jeffersonian  period,  the  burlesque  ^vocQ?,?>\on~  caricature  vi- 
vaiite — was  occasionally  employed  by  the  Revv  England  Federalists  to  excite 


EARLY  AMERICAN  CARICATURE. 


317 


popular  disapproval  of  the  embargo  which  suspended  foreign  commerce.  Eld- 
erly gentlemen  in  Newbury  port  remember  hearing  their  fathers  describe  the 
battered  old  hulk  of  a vessel,  with  rotten  rigging  and  tattered  sails,  manned 
by  ragged  and  cadaverous  sailors,  that  was  drawn  in  such  a procession  in 
1808,  the  year  of  the  Presidential  election.  There  are  even  a few  old  people 
who  remember  seeing  the  procession,  for  in  those  healthy  old  coast  towns 
the  generations  are  linked  together,  and  the  whole  history  of  New  England  is 
sometimes  represented  in  the  group  round  the  post-office  of  a fine  summer 
morning.  The  odd-looking  picture  of  the  Gerry-mander,  on  the  previous  page, 
belongs  to  the  same  period,  and  preserves  a record  not  creditable  to  party  poli- 
ticians. Democratic  leaders  in  Massachusetts,  in  order  to  secure  the  election 
of  two  Senators  of  their  party,  redistricted  the  State  with  absurd  disregard  of 
geographical  facts.  The  Centinel  exhibited  the  fraud  by  means  of  a colored 
map,  which  the  artist,  Gilbert  Stuart,  by  a few  touches,  converted  into  the  im- 
mortal Gerry-mander.  Governor  Gerry,  though  not  the  author  of  the  scheme, 
nor  an  approver  of  it,  justly  shares  the  discredit  of  a measure  which  he  might 
have  vetoed,  but  did  not. 

The  war  of  1812  yields  its  quota  of  caricature  to  the  collector’s  port-folio. 
“John  Bull  making  a New  Batch  of  Ships  to  send  to  the  Lakes”  is  an  obvious 
imitation  of  Gillray’s  masterpiece  of  Bonaparte  baking  a new  batch  of  kings. 
The  contribution  levied  upon  Alexandria,  and  the  retreat  of  a party  of  English 
troops  from  Baltimore,  furnish  subjects  to  a draughtsman  who  had  more  pa- 
triotic feeling  than  artistic  invention.  Ilis  “John  Bull”  is  a stout  man,  with 
a bull’s  head  and  a long  sword,  who  utters  pompous  words.  “I  must  have  all 
your  flour,  all  your  tobacco,  albyour  ships,  all  your  merchandise — every  thing 
except  your  Porter  and  Perry.  Keep  them  out  of  sight ; I have  had  enough 
of  them  already.”  No  doubt  this  was  comforting  to  the  patriotic  mind  while 
it  was  lamenting  a Capitol  burned  and  a President  in  flight. 


318 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


CHAPTER  XXVI. 

LATER  AMERICAN  CARICATURE, 

^l^IIE  era  of  good  feeling  which  followed  the  war  of  1812,  and  which  ex- 
-A-  hausted  the  high,  benign  spirit  infused  into  public  affairs  b}^  Mr.  Jeffer- 


Thomas  Nast,  18T5. 


son,  could  not  be  expected  to  call  forth  satirical  pictures  of  remarkable  quality. 
The  irruption  of  the  positive  and  uncontrollable  Jackson  into  politics  made 
amends.  Once  more  the  mind  of  the  country  was  astir,  and  again  nearly  the 


LATER  AMERICAN  CARICATURE. 


319 


WHOLESALE. 


T A I » 


{Harper's  Weekly,  September  16th,  1871.) 


320 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


whole  of  the  educated  class  was  arrayed  against  the  masses  of  the  people.  The 
two  political  parties  in  every  country,  call  them  by  whatever  disguising  names 
we  may,  are  the  Rich  and  the  Poor.  The  rich  are  naturally  inclined  to  use 
their  power  to  give  their  own  class  an  advantage;  the  poor  naturally  object; 

and  this  is  the  underlying,  ever-oper- 
ating cause  of  political  strife  in  all 
countries  that  enjoy  a degree  of  free- 
dom ; and  this  is  the  reason  why,  in 
times  of  political  crisis,  the  instructed 
class  is  frequently  in  the  wrong.  In- 
terest and  pride  blind  its  judgment. 
In  Jackson’s  day  the  distinction  be- 
tween the  right  and  the  wrong  poli- 
tics was  not  so  clear  as  in  Jefferson’s 
time;  but  it  was,  upon  the  whole,  the 
same  struggle  disguised  and  degraded 
by  personal  ambitions  and  antipathies. 
It  certainly  called  forth  as  many  par- 
odies, burlesques,  caricatures,  and  lam- 
poons as  any  similar  strife  since  the 
invention  of  politics.  The  coffin  hand- 
bills repeated  the  device  employed 
after  the  Boston  massacre  of  1774  in 
order  to  keep  it  in  memory  that  Gen- 
eral Jackson  had  ordered  six  militia- 
men to  be  shot  for  desertion.  The 
hickory  poles  tliat  pierced  the  sky  at  so  many  cross-roads  were  a retort  to 
these,  admitting  but  eulogizing  the  hardness  of  the  man.  The  sudden  break- 
up of  the  cabinet  in  1831  called  forth  a caricature  which  dear  Mrs.  Trollope 
described  as  the  only  tolerable  one  she  ever  saw  in  the  country.”  It  repre- 
sented the  Pi'esident  seated  in  his  room  trying  hard  to  detain  one  of  four  es- 
caping rats  by  putting  his  foot  on  its  tail.  The  rat  thus  held  wore  the  famil- 
iar countenance  of  the  Secretary  of  State,  Martin  Van  Buren,  who  had  been  re- 
quested to  remain  till  his  successor  had  arrived.  It  was  this  picture  that  gave 
occasion  for  one  of  John  Van  Buren’s  noted  sayings  that  were  once  a circu- 
lating medium  in  the  lawyers’  offices  of  New  York.  “When  will  your  father 
be  ill  New  York?”  asked  some  one.  The  reply  was,  “When  the  President 
takes  off  his  foot.” 

Then  we  liave  Van  Buren  as  a baby  in  the  arms  of  General  Jackson,  re- 
ceiving pap  from  a spoon  in  the  general’s  hand  ; Jackson  and  Clay  as  jockeys 
riding  a race  toward  the  Pi-esidential  house.  Clay  ahead;  Jackson  receiving  a 
crown  from  Van  Buren  and  a sceptre  fi-om  the  devil ; Jackson,  Benton,  Blair, 
Kendall,  and  others,  in  the  guise  of  robbers,  directing  a great  battering-ram  at 


LATER  AMERICAN  CARICATURE. 


321 


the  front  door  of  the  United  States  Bank;  Jackson,  as  Don  Quixote,  breaking 
a very  slender  lance  against  one  of  the  marble  pillars  of  the  same  edifice; 
Jackson  and  Louis  Philippe  as  pugilists  in  a ring,  the  king  having  just  re- 
ceived a blow  that  makes  his  crown  topple  over  his  face. 

Burlesque  processions  were  also  much  in  vogue  in  1832  during  the  weeks 
preceding  the  Presidential  election.  To  the  oratory  of  Webster,  Preston, 
Hoffman,  and  Everett,  the  Democracy  replied  by  massive  hickory  poles,  fifty 
feet  long,  drawn  by  eight,  twelve,  or  sixteen  horses,  and  ridden  by  as  many 
young  Democrats  as  could  get  astride  of  the  emblematic  log,  waving  flags  and 
shouting,  “ Hurra  for  Jackson!”  Live  eagles  were  borne  aloft  upon  poles, 
banners  were  carried  exhibiting  Nicholas  Biddle  as  Old  Nick,  and  endless 
ranks  of  Democrats  marched  past,  each  Democrat  wearing  in  his  hat  a sprig 
of  the  sacred  tree.  And 
again  the  cultured  orators 
were  wrong,  and  the  untu- 
tored Democrats  were  sub- 
stantially in  the  right.  Am- 
bition and  interest  prevent- 
ed those  brilliant  men  from 
seeing  that  in  putting  down 
the  bank,  as  in  other  meas- 
ures of  his  stormy  adminis- 
tration, the  worst  that  could 
be  truly  said  of  General 
Jackson  was  that  he  did 
right  things  in  a wrong  way. 

The  ‘‘  shin  - plaster  ” carica- 
ture given  on  the  following 
page  is  itself  a record  of 

the  bad  consequences  that  “Wuat  are  the  Wild  Waver  saying?”  {Harper^ s Weekly, 

. ^ July  9lh,  1870.) 

followed  his  violent  method 

in  the  matter  of  the  bank.  The  inflation  of  1835  produced  the  wild  land 
speculation  of  1836,  which  ended  in  the  woful  collapse  of  1837,  the  year  of 
bankruptcy  and  shin-plaster.” 

To  this  period  belongs  the  picture,  given  on  a previous  page,  which  carica- 
tures the  old  militia  system  by  presenting  at  one  view  many  of  the  possible 
mishaps  of  training-day.  The  receipt  which  John  Adams  gave  for  making  a 
free  commonwealth  enumerated  four  ingredients  — town  meetings,  training- 
days,  town  schools,  and  ministers.  But  in  the  time  of  Jackson  the  old  militia 
system  had  been  outgrown,  and  it  was  laughed  out  of  existence.  Most  of  the 
faces  in  this  picture  were  intended  to  be  portraits. 

Mr.  Hudson,  in  his  valuable  ‘‘  History  of  Journalism,”  speaks  of  a lithog- 
rapher named  Robinson,  who  used  to  line  the  fences  and  even  the  curb-stones 

21 


LATER  AMERICAN  CARICATURE. 


323 


of  New  York  with  rude  caricatures  of  the  persons  prominent  in  public  life 
during  the  administrations  of  Jackson  and  Van  Buren.  Several  of  these  have 
been  preserved,  with  others  of  the  same  period ; but  few  of  them  are  tolerable, 
now  that  the  feeling  which  suggested  them  no  longer  exists;  and  as  to  the 
greater  number,  we  can  only  agree  with  the  New  York  Mirror^  then  in  the 
height  of  its  celebrity  and  influence,  in  pronouncing  them  so  dull  and  so 
pointless  that  it  were  a waste  of  powder  to  blow  them  up.” 

The  publication  of  Mrs.  Trollope’s  work  upon  the  ‘‘Domestic  Manners  of 
the  Americans”  called  forth  many  inanities,  to  say  nothing  of  a volume  of  two 
hundred  and  sixteen  pages,  entitled  “Travels  in  America,  by  George  Fibbleton, 
Esq.,  ex-Barber  to  His  Majesty  the  King  of  Great  Britain.”  In  this  work  Mrs. 


Trollope’s  burlesque  was  burlesqued  sufficiently  well,  perhaps,  to  amuse  people 
at  the  moment,  though  it  reads  flatly  enough  now.  The  rise  and  progress  of 
phrenology  was  caricatured  as  badly  as  Spurzheim  himself  could  have  desired, 
and  the  agitation  in  behalf  of  the  rights  of  women  evoked  all  that  the  pencil 
can  achieve  of  the  crude  and  the  silly.  On  the  other  hand,  the  burning  of  the 
Ursuline  convent  in  Boston  was  effectively  rebuked  by  a pair  of  sketches,  one 
exhibiting  the  destruction  of  the  convent  by  an  infuriate  mob,  and  the  other 
a room  in  which  Sisters  of  Charity  are  waiting  upon  the  sick.  Over  the  whole 
was  written,  “ Look  on  this  picture,  and  on  this.” 

The  thirty  years’  word  war  that  preceded  the  four  years’  conflict  in  arms 


324 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


between  North  and  South  produced  nothing  in  the  way  of  burlesque  art  that 
is  likely  to  be  revived  or  remembered.  If  the  war  itself  was  not  prolific  of 
caricature,  it  was  because  drawing,  as  a part  of  school  training,  was  still  neg- 
lected among  us.  That  the  propensity  to  caricature  existed  is  shown  by  the 
pictures  on  envelopes  used  during  the  first  weeks  of  the  war.  The  practice 
of  illustrating  envelopes  in  this  way  began  on  both  sides  in  April,  1861,  at 
the  time  when  all  eyes  were  directed  upon  Charleston.  The  flag  of  the 
Union,  printed  in  colors,  was  the  first  device.  This  was  instantly  imitated 
by  the  Confederates,  who  filled  their  mails  with  envelope-flags  showing  seven 
stars  and  three  broad  stripes,  the  middle  (white)  one  serving  as  a place  for 
the  direction  of  the  letter.  Very  soon  the  flags  began  to  exhibit  mottoes  and 
patriotic  lines,  such  as,  ‘‘Liberty  and  Union,”  “The  Flag  of  the  Free,”  and 
“Forever  float  that  Standard  Sheet!”  The  national  arms  speedily  appeared, 
with  various  mottoes  annexed.  General  Dix’s  inspiration,  “ If  any  one  at- 
tempts to  haul  down  the  American  flag,  shoot  him  on  the  spot,”  was  the  most 
popular  of  all  for  several  weeks.  Portraits  of  favorite  generals  and  other  pub- 
lic men  were  soon  added — Scott,  Fremont,  Dix,  Lincoln,  Seward,  and  others. 
Before  long  the  satirical  and  burlesque  spirit  began  to  manifest  itself  in  such 
devices  as  a black  flag  and  death’s-head,  with  the  words  “Jeff  Davis — his 
Mark;”  a gallows,  with  a man  hanging;  a large  pig,  with  “Whole  Hog  or 

None;”  a bull-dog  with  his  foot  on  a 
great  piece  of  beef,  marked  Washing- 
ton, with  the  words  “ Why  don’t  you 
take  it?”  The  portrait  of  General 
Butler  figured  on  thousands  of  letters 
during  the  months  of  April  and  May, 
with  his  patriotic  sentence,  “ What- 
ever our  politics,  the  Government 
must  be  sustained  ;”  and,  a little  later, 
his  happy  application  of  the  words 
“contraband  of  war”  to  the  case  of  the  fugitive  negroes  was  repeated  upon 
letters  without  number.  “ Come  back  here,  you  old  black  rascal !”  cries  a 
master  to  his  escaping  slave.  “ Can’t  come  back  nohow,”  replies  the  colored 
brother;  “dis  chile  contraban’.”  On  many  envelopes  printed  as  early  as  May, 
1861,  we  may  still  read  a prophecy  under  the  flag  of  the  Union  that  has  been 
fulfilled,  “I  shall  wave  again  over  Sumter.” 

Such  things  as  these  usually  perish  with  the  feeling  that  called  them  forth. 
Mr.  William  B.  Taylor,  then  the  postmaster  of  New  York,  struck  with  the 
peculiar  appearance  of  the  post-oflice,  all  gay  and  brilliant  with  heaps  of  col- 
ored pictures,  conceived  the  fancy  of  saving  one  or  two  envelopes  of  each  kind, 
selected  from  the  letters  addressed  to  himself.  These  he  hastily  pasted  in  a 
scrap-book,  which  he  afterward  gave  to  swell  the  invaluable  collection  of  curi- 
osities belonging  to  the  New  York  Historical  Society. 


LATER  AMERICAN  CARICATURE. 


325 


POPULAK  CAKICATtIRE  OF  THE  SECESSION  WaR. 

(From  Envelopes,  18G1.  Collected  by  William  B.  Taylor,  Postmaster  of  New  York,  and  presented  by  him 
to  the  New  York  Historical  Society.) 


326 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


We  should  not  naturally  have  looked  for  caricature  in  Richmond  in  April, 
1861,  while  the  convention  was  sitting  that  passed  the  ordinance  of  secession. 
But  the  reader  will  perceive  on  this  page  that  the  pencil  lent  its  aid  to  those 
who  were  putting  the  native  state  of  Washington  and  Jefferson  on  the  wrong 
side  of  the  great  controversy.  This  specimen  appeared  on  the  morning  of  the 
decisive  day,  and  was  brought  away  by  a lady  who  then  left  Richmond  for  her 
home  in  New  York.  The  rats  are  arranged  so  as  to  show  the  order  in  which 
the  States  seceded:  South  Cai'olina  first,  Mississippi  second,  Alabama  and 
Florida  on  the  same  day,  and  Virginia  still  held  by  the  negotiations  with  Mr. 
Lincoln.  This  picture  may  stand  as  the  contribution  of  the  Confederacy  to 
the  satiric  art  of  the  world. 

Few  readers  need  to  be  informed  that  it  was  the  war  which  developed  and 
brought  to  light  the  caricaturist  of  the  United  States,  Thomas  Nast.  When 
the  war  began  he  was  a boyish -looking  youth  of  eighteen,  who  had  already 
been  employed  as  a draughtsman  upon  the  illustrated  press  of  New  York  and 
London  for  two  years.  He  had  ridden  in  Garibaldi’s  train  during  the  cam- 
paign of  1860  which  freed  Sicily  and  Naples,  and  sent  sketches  of  the  leading 
events  home  to  New  York  and  to  the  London  Illustrated  News.  But  it  was 
the  secession  war  that  changed  him  from  a roving  lad,  with  a swift  pencil  for 
sale,  into  a patriot  artist,  burning  with  the  enthusiasm  of  the  time.  Harped s 
Weekly^  circulating  in  every  town,  army,  camp,  fort,  and  ship,  placed  the  whole 
country  within  his  reach,  and  he  gave  forth  from  time  to  time  those  powerful 
emblematic  pictures  that  roused  the  citizen  and  cheered  the  soldier.  In  these 
early  works,  produced  amidst  the  harrowing  anxieties  of  the  war,  the  serious 


LATER  AMERICAN  CARICATURE. 


327 


element  was  of  necessity  dominant,  and  it  was  this  quality  that  gave  them  so 
much  influence.  They  were  as  much  the  expression  of  heart-felt  conviction  as 
Mr.  Curtis’s  most  impassioned  editorials,  or  Mr.  Lincoln’s  Gettysburg  speech. 
This  I know,  because  I sat  by  his  side  many  a time  while  he  was  drawing 
them,  and  was  with  him  often  at  those  electric  moments  when  the  idea  of  a 
picture  was  conceived.  It  was  not  till  the  war  was  over,  and  President  An- 
drew Johnson  began  to  ‘‘swing  round  the  circle,”  that  Mr.  IsTast’s  pictures  be- 
came caricatures.  But  they  were  none  the  less  the  utterance  of  conviction. 
Whether  he  is  wrong  or  right  in  the  view  presented  of  a subject,  his  pictures 
are  always  as  much  the  product  of  his  mind  as  they  are  of  his  hand. 

Concerning  the  justice  of  many  of  his  political  caricatures  there  must  be, 
of  course,  two  opinions ; but  happily  his  greatest  achievement  is  one  which  the 
honest  portion  of  the  people  all  approve.  Caricature,  since  the  earliest  known 
period  of  its  existence,  far  back  in  the  dawn  of  Egyptian  history,  has  accom- 
plished nothing  else  equal  to  the  series  of  about  forty-flve  pictures  contributed 
by  Thomas  Nast  to  Harper^ 8 JVeeMy  for  the  explosion  of  the  Tammany  Ring. 
These  are  the  utmost  that  satiric  art  has  done  in  that  kind.  The  fertility  of 
invention  displayed  by  the  artist,  week  after  week,  for  months  at  a time,  was 
so  extraordinary  that  people  concluded,  as  a matter  of  course,  the  ideas  were 
furnished  him  by  others.  On  the  contrary,  he  can  not  draw  from  the  sugges- 
tions of  other  minds.  His  more  celebrated  pictures  have  been  drawn  in  quiet 
country  places,  several  miles  from  the  city  in  which  they  were  published. 

The  presence  in  'New  York  of  seventy  or  eighty  thousand  voters,  born  and 
reared  in  Europe,  and  left  by  European  systems  of  government  and  religion 
totally  ignorant  of  all  that  the  citizens  of  a free  state  are  most  concerned  to 
know,  gave  a chance  here  to  the  political  thief  such  as  has  seldom  existed,  ex- 
cept within  the  circle  of  a court  and  aristocracy.  The  stealing,  which  was  be- 
gun forty  years  before  in  the  old  corporation  tea-room,  had  at  last  become  a 
system,  which  was  worked  by  a few  coarse,  cunning  men  with  such  effect  as 
to  endanger  the  solvency  of  the  city.  They  stole  more  like  kings  and  emper- 
ors than  like  common  thieves,  and  the  annual  festival  given  by  them  at  the 
Academy  of  Music  called  to  mind  the  reckless  profusion  of  Louis  XIV.  when 
he  entertained  the  French  nobles  at  Versailles  at  the  expense  of  the  laborious 
and  economical  people  of  France.  Their  chief  was  almost  as  ignorant  and  vul- 
gar, though  not  as  mean  and  pig-like,  as  George  IV.  of  England.  In  many 
particulars  they  resembled  the  gang  of  low  conspirators  who  seized  the  su- 
preme power  in  Fi’ance  in  1851,  and  in  the  course  of  twenty  years  brought 
that  powerful  and  illustrious  nation  so  near  ruin  that  it  is  even  now  a matter 
of  doubt  whether  it  exists  by  strength  or  by  sufferance. 

What  an  escape  we  had  ! But,  also,  what  immeasurable  harm  was  done ! 
From  being  a city  where  every  one  wished  to  live,  or,  at  least,  often  to  remain, 
they  allowed  Xew  York  to  become  a place  from  which  all  escaped  who  could. 
Nothing  saved  its  business  predominance  but  certain  facts  of  geology  and  ge- 


328 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


TWEEDLEDEE  AND  SWEEDLEDUM. 

{A  New  Christmas  Pantomime  at  Tammany  Hall.) 

Clown  {to  Pantaloon).  “ Let’s  blind  them  with  this.,  and  then  take  some  more.'' 

Tweed’s  Gift  of  Fifty  Tuousamd  Dollars  to  the  Poor  of  uis  Native  Ward.  {Harper's  Weekly, 

January  14th,  ISIl.) 

ograpliy  which  Rings  can  not  alter.  Two  generations  of  wise  and  patriotic 
exertion  will  not  undo  the  mischief  done  by  that  knot  of  scoundrels  in  about 
six  years.  The  press  caught  them  at  the  full  tide  of  their  success,  when  the 
Tammany  Ring,  in  fell  alliance  with  a railroad  ring,  was  confident  of  placing  a 
puppet  of  its  own  in  the  Presidential  chair.  The  history  of  tliis  melancholy 
lapse,  from  the  hour  when  an  alderman  first  pocketed  a quire  of  note-paper,  or 
carried  from  the  tea-room  a bundle  of  cigars,  to  the  moment  of  Tweed’s  rescue 
from  a felon’s  cell  through  the  imperfection  of  the  law,  wei’e  a subject  wor- 
thier far  of  a great  American  writer  in  independent  circumstances  than  any  he 
could  find  in  the  records  of  the  world  beyond  the  sea.  The  interests  of  human 
nature,  not  less  than  the  special  interests  of  this  country,  demand  that  it  should 


LATER  AMERICAN  CARICATURE. 


329 


be  written ; for  all  the  nations  are  now  in  substantially  the  same  moral  and 
political  condition.  Old  methods  have  become  everywhere  inadequate  before 
new  ones  are  evolved;  and  meanwhile  the  Scoundrel  has  all  the  new  forces 
and  implements  at  his  command.  If  ever  this  story  should  be  written  for  the 
instruction  of  mankind,  the  historian  will  probably  tell  us  that  two  young  men 
of  the  New  York  press  did  more  than  any  others  to  create  the  feeling  that 
broke  the  Ring.  Both  of  them  naturally  loathed  a public  thief.  One  of  these 
young  men  in  the  columns  of  an  important  daily  paper,  and  the  other  on  the 
broad  pages  of  Harper’s  Weekly,  waged  brilliant  and  effective  warfare  against 
the  combination  of  spoilers.  They  made  mad  the  guilty  and  appalled  the  free. 
They  gave,  also,  moral  support  to  the  able  and  patriotic  gentlemen  who,  in 


'who  ST01.E  TKE  PEOPUS  MOjiW  ? - DO  TELE  . ny.TiMES.  ' T WA-5 . H } M* 


(Thomas  Nast,  iu  Harper's  Weekly,  August  19th,  18T1.) 

more  quiet,  unconspicuous  ways,  were  accumulating  evidence  that  finally  con- 
signed some  of  the  conspirators  to  felons’  cells,  and  made  the  rest  harmless 
wanderers  over  the  earth. 

Comic  art  is  now  well  established  among  us.  In  the  illustrated  papers 
there  are  continually  appearing  pictures  which  are  highly  amusing,  without 
having  the  incisive,  aggressive  force  of  Mr.  Nast’s  caricatures.  The  old  favor- 
ites of  the  public.  Belle w,  Ey tinge,  Reinhart,  Beard,  are  known  and  admired, 
and  the  catalogue  continually  lengthens  by  the  addition  of  other  names.  In- 
teresting sketches,  more  or  less  satirical,  bear  the  names  of  Brackmere,  C.  G. 
Parker,  M.  Woolf,  G.  Bull,  S.  Fox,  Paul  Frenzeny,  Thomas  Worth,  Hopkins, 
Frost,  Wust,  and  others.  Among  such  names  it  is  delightful  to  find  those  of 


330 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


M‘Clellaii.  Barlow.  Belmont, 

“On  to  Richmond!” — The  Peninsulak  Campaign.  (1S62.) 


McClellan.  “You  must  coax  him  along:  conciliate  him.  Force  won’t  do,  I don’t  believe  in  it ; but  don’t 
let  go.  Keep  his  head  to  the  rear.  If  he  should  get  away,  he  might  go  to  Richmond,  and  then  my  plans  for 
conquering  the  Rebellion  will  never  be  developed.” 

B-lm—t.  “Hold  fast,  B-rl-w,  or  he  loill  get  to  Richmond  in  spite  of  us ; and  then  my  capital  for  the  Euro-^ 
peau  market  is  all  lost,” 

B-rl-w.  “I’ve  got  him  fast ; there’s  no  danger.  He’s  only  changing  his  base  to  the  Gun-boats.” 

B-lm-t.  “Look  out  for  that  letter  to  the  President  which  you  wi'ote  for  him.  Don’t  lose  that.” 

B-rl-w.  “ No ; I have  it  safe  here  in  my  pocket.  When  his  change  of  base  is  effected,  I will  make  him  sign 
the  letter,  and  send  it  to  old  Abe.” 

two  ladies,  Mary  McDonald  and  Jennie  Browscombe.  The  old  towns  of  New 
England  abound  in  undeveloped  and  half-developed  female  talent,  for  which 
there  seems  at  present  no  career.  There  will  never  be  a career  for  talent  un- 
developed or  half  developed.  Give  the  schools  in  those  fine  old  towns  one  les- 
son a week  in  oliject-drawing  from  a teacher  that  knows  his  business,  keep  it 
up  for  one  generation,  and  New  England  girls  will  cheer  all  homes  by  genial 
sketches  and  amusing  glimpses  of  life,  to  say  nothing  of  more  important  and 
serious  artistic  work.  The  talent  exists;  the  taste  exists.  Nothing  is  want- 
ing but  for  us  all  to  cast  away  from  us  the  ridiculous  notion  that  the  only 
thing  in  human  nature  that  requires  educating  is  the  brain.  We  must  awake 
to  the  vast  absurdity  of  bringing  up  girls  upon  algebra  and  Latin,  and  sending 
them  out  into  a world  which  they  were  born  to  cheer  and  decorate  unable  to 
walk,  dance,  sing,  or  draw;  their  minds  overwrought,  but  not  well  nourished, 
and  their  bodies  devoid  of  the  rudiments  of  education. 

There  is  no  country  on  earth  where  the  humorous  aspects  of  human  life  are 
more  relished  than  in  the  United  States,  and  none  where  there  is  less  power  to 
exhibit  them  by  the  pencil.  There  are  to-day  a thousand  paragraphs  afloat  in 
the  press  which  ought  to  have  been  pictures.  Here  is  one  from  a newspaper 


LATER  AMERICAN  CARICATURE. 


331 


in  the  interior  of  Georgia:  sorry  sight  it  is  to  see  a spike  team,  consisting 

of  a skeleton  steer  and  a skinky  blind  mule,  with  rope  harness,  and  a squint- 
eyed  driver,  hauling  a barrel  of  new  whisky  over  poor  roads,  on  a hermaphro- 
dite wagon,  into  a farming  district  where  the  people  are  in  debt,  and  the  chil- 
dren are  forced  to  practice  scant  attire  by  day  and  hungry  sleeping  by  night.” 
The  man  who  penned  those  graphic  lines  needed,  perhaps,  but  an  educated 
hand  to  reproduce  the  scene,  and  make  it  as  vivid  to  all  minds  as  it  was  to  his 
own.  The  country  contains  many  such  possible  artists. 

A novel  kind  of  living  caricature  has  been  presented  occasionally,  of  late, 
by  Mr.  William  E.  Baker,  of  the  famous  firm  of  sewing-machine  manufacturers, 
Grover  & Baker.  At  his  farm  in  Xatick,  Massachusetts,  Mr.  Baker  is  fond  of 
burlesquing  the  national  propensity  to  convert  every  trifling  celebration  into 
a banner-and-brass-band  pageant.  A great  company  was  once  invited  to  his 
place  to  “assist”  at  the  naming  of  a calf.  At  another  time,  the  birthday  of  a 
favorite  heifer  was  celebrated  with  pomp  and  circumstance.  In  the  summer 
of  1875,  several  hundreds  of  people  were  summoned  to  witness  the  laying  of 
the  corner-stone  of  a new  pig-pen,  and  among  the  guests  were  a governor,  mil- 
itary companies,  singing  clubs,  members  of  foreign  legations,  and  other  per- 
sons of  note  and  importance.  The  enormous  card  of  invitation,  besides  being- 
adorned  with  pictures  of  high-bred  pigs  in  the  happiest  condition,  contained  a 
story  showing  how  pigs  had  brought  on  a war  between  two  powerful  nations. 
This  was  the  tale : 


“By  the  carelessness  of  a boy  in  1811,  a garden-gate  in  Rhode  Island  was 


CiiEiSTAiAS-TniE— Won  at  a Tckkey  Raffle.  (Sol  Eytiiige,  Juu.,  Harper's  Weekly,  ^auviavy  3cl,  1874.) 
“De  breed  am  small,  but  de  flavor  am  delicious.” 


332 


CARICATURE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


“He  oometh  not,  she  said.”  (M.  Woolf,  in  Harj^er's  Bazar,  July  31st,  1875.) 


left  open ; two  pigs  entered  and  destroyed  a few  plants.  The  day  was  hot,  the 
pigs  fat,  and  when  attempts  were  made  to  drive  them  out,  the  characteristic 
obstinacy  of  the  animals  occasioned  such  violent  exercise  as  to  cause  their 
death.  A quarrel  ensued  between  the  owner  of  the  pigs  and  the  owner  of  the 
garden,  which,  spreading  among  their  friends,  resulted  in  the  election  of  the 
opposition  candidate — Howell — by  one  majority  to  the  United  States  Senate, 
by  whose  vote  the  motion  to  postpone  until  the  next  session  further  considera- 
tion on  the  question  of  declaring  war  was  defeated  by  one  majority;  and  by 
the  vote  following  it  war  was  declared  with  Great  Britain  in  1812,  although 
Howell  was  opposed  to  and  voted  against  it.” 

This  story  was  illustrated  by  excellent  wood-cuts.  The  account  of  the  fes- 
tival, given  in  the  Boston  Advertiser^  is  worth  preserving  as  a narrative  of  the 
most  costly,  extensive,  and  elaborate  joke  ever  performed  in  the  United  States. 

' Since  kings  and  emperors  ceased  to  amuse  their  guests  with  similar  burlesques, 
I know  not  if  the  world  has  witnessed  “fooling”  on  so  large  a scale. 

“On  Saturday”  (June  19th,  1875,  two  days  after  the  Bunker  Hill  Centen- 
nial) “ the  invited  guests  repaired  to  the  Albany  Railroad  Depot.  The  nine- 
o’clock  train  took  out  the  Fifth  Maryland  Regiment,  which  had  been  invited, 
and  the  Marine  Band  of  Washington,  also  a delegation  of  the  Washington 
Light  Infantry  of  Charleston,  South  Carolina. 

“The  next  train  took  out  their  escort,  the  Charlestown  Cadets,  Company 
A,  Fifth  Massachusetts  Regiment,  Captain  J.  E.  Phipps,  the  corps  missing  the 


LATER  AMERICAN  CARICATURE. 


333 


train ; a large  number  of  invited  guests,  including  Governor  Gaston,  his  aid, 
Colonel  Wyman,  Colonels  Kingsbury  and  Treadwell,  and  other  representatives 
of  the  State  House,  General  I.  S.  Burrell,  First  Brigade,  and  a great  many  of- 
ficers of  rank  of  the  different  military  organizations  of  the  State  in  uniform. 

“Upon  arriving  at  the  depot  in  Wellesley,  the  carriage  of  Governor  Eustis, 
in  which  Lafayette  rode  into  Boston  in  1824,  with  large  iron-gray  horses  and 
rich  gold-mounted  harness,  as  old-fashioned  as  the  vehicle,  was  placed  at  the 
service  of  the  governor  and  his  party.  The  line,  consisting  of  some  fifty  ve- 
hicles, each  capable  of  transporting  twenty  or  thirty  persons,  headed  by  Ed- 
mands’s  Band,  was  then  formed  under  the  direction  of  Lieutenant  Francis 
L.  Hills,  of  the  United  States  Artillery,  who,  by- the- way,  was  a most  useful 
marshal. 

“ The  procession  was  welcomed  to  the  Farms  by  George  O.  Sanford,  Chief 
Marshal,  who  was  attired  in  a rich  dark -velvet  suit  of  the  style  of  1775, 
trimmed  with  gold-lace,  and  a bag-wig. 

“ About  two  or  three  thousand  persons  were  upon  the  ground.  Among 
them  were  General  Banks,  General  Underwood,  Colonel  Andrews,  of  Charles- 
ton, South  Carolina,  and  many  other  citizens  of  note,  in  addition  to  those  pre- 
viously mentioned.  The  marshals  were  distinguished  by  wearing  a minia- 
ture silver  hog  upon  the  lapels  of  their  coats,  upon  which  were  the  letters 
‘W.  E.  B.,  June  19th,  1875,’  and  underneath  the  metal  a ribbon  badge  with 
‘Marshal’  in  gold  letters,  intended  to  read  ‘We  B Marshal’  They  also  car- 
ried a silver  baton  with  red,  white,  and  blue  ribbons.  Of  those  upon  the 
ground  perhaps  five  hundred  were  ladies. 

“ Teams  from  all  the  surrounding  country  were  in  the  roads  about  the 
place,  with  their  occupants  gazing  upon  the  spectacle.  The  military,  who  had 
marched  from  the  depot,  were  drawn  up  on  the  lawn.  The  Marine  Band  was 
discoursing  its  delightful  music  here,  Edmands’s  Band  at  another  point,  and 
the  Natick  Cornet  at  a third. 

“ Old  Father  Time  was  circulating  about  in  gray  hair,  long  gray  beard,  a 
dark-purple  velvet  robe,  and  carrying  the  conventional  scythe.  Cheers  upon 
cheers  were  going  up  for  the  host  from  the  military  and  the  other  guests. 
Many  hundreds  of  chairs  were  provided  at  different  points  for  the  use  of  the 
weary.  The  young  son  of  Mr.  Baker  was  dressed  in  full  Revolutionary  Min- 
ute-man costume. 

“About  twelve  o’clock  the  military  stacked  their  arms,  and  all  repaired  to 
an  immense  pavilion,  where  substantial  refreshments,  including  iced  tea  for  a 
beverage,  were  provided  for  the  thousands.  In  the  ‘Minnehaha  Sweet- water 
Wigwam’  were  two  immense  tubs  holding  about  two  barrels  each,  one  filled 
with  lemonade  and  the  other  with  claret-punch. 

“In  a large  pen  or  ‘ corral’  built  of  railroad-ties,  in  a manner  partaking  of  a 
Virginia  fence,  a log-cabin,  and  a block  fortress,  V7ere  a cage  of  youthful  bears 
and  cages  of  other  animals.  The  place  was  surrounded  with  pictures  of  hogs 


334 


CARICATUKE  AND  COMIC  ART. 


and  men,  both  indulging  in  a grand  carouse.  There  was  no  roof,  and  the  top 
was  surmounted  by  stuffed  birds  and  animals.  In  this  place  two  of  Satan’s 
respectable  representatives,  a blue  devil  and  a red  devil,  were  dealing  out 
whisky-punch. 

‘‘At  about  two  o’clock  a procession  marched  about  a quarter  of  a mile  to 
the  vicinity  of  the  Buffalo  yards,  where  the  corner-stone  of  the  new  piggery 
was  to  be  laid.  A platform  some  thirty  feet  square  had  been  erected,  and, 
after  music  from  Edmands’s  Band,  Mr.  Baker  made  a brief  address  of  welcome. 

“Brief  and  pertinent  remarks  were  made  by  Governor  Gaston,  Curtis 
Guild,  Esq.,  of  the  Commercial  Bulletin^  Colonel  Andrews,  of  South  Carolina, 
and  C.  B.  Farnsworth,  of  Rhode  Island. 

“Colonel  Jenkins,  commander  of  the  Fifth,  was  called  upon,  and  com- 
menced a patriotic  speech,  when  he  was  interrupted  by  Mr.  Baker,  who  took 
from  a box  a live  white  pig,  some  six  weeks  old,  and  presented  it  to  the  col- 
onel for  a ‘ Child  of  the  Regiment.’ 

“Amidst  shouts  of  laughter,  the  gallant  colonel,  in  his  rich  dress,  went  on, 
dealing  out  patriotism  with  one  arm  and  holding  the  pig  in  the  other,  where  it 
quietly  reposed,  looking  for  all  the  world  like  a quiet  babe  just  from  the  bath. 
The  effect  was  irrepressibly  ludicrous. 

“ Soon  afterward  Mr.  Baker  produced  a black  pig,  some  three  months  old  ; 
but  the  officer,  having  his  arms  already  full,  handed  it  to  one  of  his  men,  who 
threw  it  upon  his  back,  and  only  its  head  and  fore  paws  were  visible  over  the 
shoulders  of  the  soldier. 

“ The  rueful  look  of  Piggy  as  he  contemplated  society  from  this  novel  posi- 
tion, and  his  squeals  of  wonder  and  fright,  sent  off  the  whole  audience  again 
into  laughter,  and  the  Maryland  boys  cheered  for  their  adopted  twins. 

“The  corner-stone  was  then  lowered  into  position,  the  rope  being  held 
by  Governor  Gaston,  Colonel  Andrews,  Colonel  Jenkins,  and  Mr.  Farnsworth, 
Mr.  Baker  first  remarking  that,  as  the  Jews  considered  the  pig  unclean,  it 
might  be  well  to  put  a scent  under  the  stone,  which  Mr.  Guild  thought  was  a 
centimental  idea.  Many  cents  were  thrown,  after  which  there  was  a slight 
shower,  and  many  persons  entered  the  big  stable  where  were  the  wonderful 
cows  which  gave  milk-punch. 

“After  the  ceremony  there  was  another  collation,  and  then  the  soldiers  had 
a game  of  foot-ball.  As  they  were  about  to  be  loaded  into  carriages — for  they 
rode  back  to  the  depot  — several  hundred  red,  white,  and  blue  toy  balloons 
were  cut  loose,  and  the  air  was  filled  with  flocks  of  them.  The  troops  took 
the  train  and  arrived  in  town  at  six  o’clock,  and  left  almost  immediately  for 
home.” 

With  this  remarkable  specimen  of  Comic  Art  in  America,  I take  leave  of 
the  subject. 


INDEX 


A. 

Abbott,  Dr.,  interprets  an  Egyptian  caricature, 
32. 

Adams,  John,  quoted,  upon  a free  common- 
wealth, 821. 

^neas,  burlesque  picture  of,  20. 

Alcmena,  Princess,  burlesqued,  29. 

Alexaminos,  Roman  caricature  of,  26. 

Alexander  I.,  his  advice  to  Louis  XVIII.,  213. 
American  caricatuie,  chapters  upon,  300,  318. 
Amsterdam,  caricatures  published  in,  129. 
Ancbises  burlesqued,  20. 

Ancients,  the,  their  modes  of  ridicule,  15. 
Antiphanes,  quoted,  upon  women,  176. 
Antiquaries  puzzled,  picture  of,  146. 

Apollo  burlesqued,  29,  30. 

Arbutbnot,  John,  his  epitaph  upon  Charteris, 
136.  , 

Aristophanes,  his  power  to  provoke  mirth,  30 ; 

satire  of  women,  176. 

Armstrong,  John,  quoted,  309. 

Ascanius  burlesqued,  20. 

Ass,  the,  catechism  upon,  49. 

Avegay,  Madame,  in  a caricature,  63. 

B. 

Bacchus,  legend  of,  23. 

Baker,  William  E.,  his  burlesque  celebration, 
331. 

Ballou,  M.  M.,  his  quotation-book,  184. 
Bastwick,  Dr.,  loses  his  ears,  99  ; his  triumphal 
return  to  London,  99. 

Beaumarchais,  Caron  de,  quoted,  161,  162. 
Beaumont,  G.  de,  a caricature  by,  184. 

Beer  known  to  the  ancient  Egyptians,  34. 
Beranger,  Pierre-Jean  de,  his  songs  during  the 
Restoration,  214,  215. 

Bernard,  St.,  quoted,  upon  grotesque  decora- 
tion, 47. 

Biddle,  Nicholas,  burlesqued,  321. 

Bohemians,  the,  described,  172. 

Bomba  caricatured,  262,  263. 

Bonaparte,  Eugenie,  caricatured,  234,  238. 
Bonaparte,  Louis,  burlesqued,  235,  238. 


Bonaparte,  L.  N.,  caricatured,  233,  238,  250, 
252,  255. 

Bonaparte,  Napoleon,  developed  through  George 
III.,  153;  suppressed  caricature,  208;  cari- 
catures of,  210,  268,  269. 

Boston  described,  301. 

Box,  Dame,  anecdote  of,  117. 

Bradlaugh,  Charles,  in  a caricature,  297. 

Brandt,  Sebastian,  his  “Ship  of  Fools,”  60, 
180. 

Brougham,  Lord,  caricatured  in  Punch,  287, 
289. 

Browne,  Hahlot  Iv.,  criticised  by  Thackeray, 
223. 

Burke,  Edmund,  in  Gillray’s  caricatures,  154  ; 
quoted,  upon  the  French  Revolution,  163; 
caricature,  164. 

Burnet,  Bishop,  describes  an  altar-piece,  48. 

Bute,  Lord,  a favorite  of  George  III.,  150; 
caricatured,  152,  153. 

Butler,  B.  F.,  upon  war  envelopes,  324. 

Button,  Daniel,  his  coffee-house,  135. 

C. 

Cairo  never  swept,  22. 

Calvin,  Jean,  his  origin,  82  ; caricatures  of,  83- 
85. 

Cambaceres,  Jean- Jacques  Regis  de,  a portrait 
of,  213. 

Canning,  Mr.,  not  offended  by  caricature,  289. 

Carlyle,  Thomas,  quoted,  upon  the  French,  162, 
163. 

Cathedrals,  decorations  of,  40-43;  explained,  48. 

Centinel,  the,  a parody  from,  314. 

Chambers,  William,  quoted,  upon  his  early 
time,  272. 

Cham,  caricatures  by,  185,  228,  232. 

Champfleury,  Jules,  quoted,  on  pigmies,  18  ; on 
cathedral  decoration,  43,  46,  53  ; gives  a bur- 
lesque Paternoster,  61 ; upon  midnight  masses, 
61 ; upon  burlesque  decoration  of  manuscripts, 
67 ; caricature  from,  161,  162,  211  ; quoted, 
212,  220. 

Charivari,  Le,  its  course,  218,  220. 

Charles  II.,  caricature  of,  103,  106. 


336 


INDEX. 


Charles  X.  dethroned,  216. 

Charlotte,  Queen,  caricatured,  154. 

Charteris,  Colonel  Francis,  epitaph  upon,  136. 

Chatham,  Lord,  caricatured,  156;  disliked  by 
George  III.,  157. 

Chatto,  W.  A.,  quoted,  upon  an  old  caricature, 
64,  97. 

Chesterfield,  Lord,  quoted,  upon  women,  185. 

China,  caricatures  of,  191. 

Chiron  burlesqued,  29. 

Christians,  Koman  caricature  of,  25 ; Eoman 
opinion  of,  26. 

Cicero  divorces  his  wife,  178. 

Clement  VII.  ridiculed  by  Luther,  76 ; pas- 
quinade upon,  258. 

Clergy,  the,  dissolute  in  the  early  ages,  68  ; an- 
ecdotes of,  68  ; rob  and  plunder,  69. 

Coalition,  the,  caricatured,  157,  158. 

Collier,  Payne,  writes  out  Punch,  266. 

Commune,  tlie,  caricatures  of,  235. 

Cranach,  Lucas,  caricaturist  of  the  Eeforma- 
tion,  77. 

Cranmer,  Bishop,  his  martyrdom,  87. 

Cris-cross  rhymes,  specimen  of,  105. 

Cromwell,  Elizabeth,  caricatured,  107. 

Cromwell,  Oliver,  caricatured,  104  ; his  funeral 
and  disinterment,  106. 

Cromwell,  Eichard,  in  caricature,  107. 

Crozat,  Antoine,  sells  Louisiana  trade,  125. 

Cruikshank,  George,  his  caricature  of  crinoline, 
181;  of  school-girls,  189;  draws  Punch,  265; 
his  career,  268;  pictures  by,  270,  271,  273; 
his  family,  269. 

Cruikshank,  Isaac,  his  career,  273. 

Cuba,  comic  art  in,  256. 

D. 

Dance  of  Death,  in  Art  of  Middle  Ages,  57-59. 

Dangeau,  Marquis  de,  quoted,  upon  Louis  XV., 
159. 

Daumier,  M.,  his  caricatures,  180,  219,  235. 

Davus  satirizes  Horace,  25. 

Death-crier,  picture  of,  56. 

“ Decameron,”  the,  its  effect  upon  contempora- 
ries, 70. 

Devil,  the,  traditional  character  of,  51  ; carica- 
tured, 52-55  ; modified  by  time,  65. 

Devonshire,  Duchess  of,  caricatured,  153. 

Dickens,  Charles,  his  “Pickwick,”  23;  origin 
of  his  “ Bill  Stumps,”  146  ; Pickwick  suggest- 
ed by  Seymour,  280  ; described  by  Willis,  282. 

Disraeli,  Benjamin,  caricatured,  289. 

D’Israeli,  Isaac,  quoted,  upon  Punch,  265. 

Dodington,  Bubb,  quoted,  upon  early  life  of 
George  III.,  148,  149. 

“Don  Quixote,”  one  secret  of  its  charm,  23; 
quoted,  56. 


Dore,  Gustave,  caricature  by,  231,  232. 

Doyle,  John,  his  caricatures,  275. 

Doyle,  Eichard,  his  Wedding  Breakfast,  281  ; 
leaves  Punch  for  conscience’  sake,  299. 

Du  Maurier,  Mr.,  his  pictures  of  children,  294, 
297. 

Durand,  M.,  his  interpretation  of  a cathedral, 
48. 

Diirer,  Albert,  describes  a procession,  92. 

E. 

Egyptians,  art  among,  32,  33 ; their  habits,  34, 
56. 

Elizabeth,  Queen,  celebration  of  her  birthday, 

110. 

England,  caricature  in,  267. 

Erasmus,  quoted,  upon  the  monks,  66,  71 ; de- 
tested by  Luther,  75;  satirizes  women,  181, 
182. 

Evelyn,  John,  quoted,  upon  law,  124. 

Extinguishers,  family  of  the,  214. 

Eytinge,  Sol,  picture  by,  331. 

E. 

Fairholt,  F.  W.,  upon  Gog  and  Magog,  50. 

Fanning  the  Grave — a Chinese  poem,  193. 

Feuillet,  Octave,  misrepresents,  172. 

“ Figaro,  Marriage  of,”  quoted,  161,  162. 

Fleury,  Cardinal,  tutor  of  Louis  XV.,  159. 

Fox,  Charles  James,  in  Gillray’s  caricatures, 
153,  154,  157 ; disliked  by  George  III.,  157 ; 
caricatured  by  Isaac  Cruikshank,  274. 

France,  caricature  of,  208. 

Franklin,  Benjamin,  his  caricature  of  the  Col- 
onies Eeduced,  147 ; quoted,  upon  George 
III.,  15L;  burlesques  English  policy,  155; 
quoted,  185;  his  early  use  of  pictures,  300, 
304 ; his  early  lampoons,  302 ; his  love  of 
humor,  301,  303  ; his  Scalp  Hoax,  306. 

Frederic  II.  snubs  Pompadour,  160. 

French  Eevolution,  caricatures  of,  161-170. 

Fry,  William  H.,  his  use  of  Juvenal,  23. 

G. 

Galas,  General,  caricature  of,  115. 

Gallatin,  Albert,  good  financier,  124. 

Ganesa,  his  character  in  Hindoo  theology,  36. 

Gardiner,  Bishop,  his  martyrdom,  86,  87. 

Gautier,  Theophile,  quoted,  upon  Gavarni,  224. 

Gavarni,  his  caricatures  of  women,  171,  176, 
187,  188 ; his  only  political  caricatures,  216 ; 
social  caricatures  by,  223,  224,  226 ; portrait 
of,  236. 

IGegeef,  his  caricatures,  297. 

Geiler,  Jacob,  satirizes  the  monks,  71. 

George  III.,  his  early  life,  148;  compared  with 
Louis  XV.,  159  ; caricature  of,  209,  269. 


INDEX. 


337 


George  IV.,  anecdote  of,  151  ; in  Gillray’s  car- 
icatures, 154. 

Germany,  comic  art  in,  242. 

Gerry,  Elbridge,  in  the  alfair  of  the  Gerry- 
mander, 317. 

Gerry-mander,  the  picture  of,  316. 

Gibbon,  Edward,  quoted,  upon  rise  of  Christian- 
ity, 47,  54. 

‘‘  Gil  Bias,”  secret  of  its  charm,  23. 

Gillray,  James,  his  works  described,  153,  154; 
caricatures  Napoleon,  209  ; his  portrait,  267. 

Gin,  law  to  diminish  use  of,  143. 

Girin,  a caricature  from,  179. 

Godfrey,  Sir  Edmundsbury,  assassinated,  109- 

111. 

Godiva,  remark  upon,  183. 

Goethe,  J.  W.,  quoted,  upon  housekeeping,  177. 

Gog  and  Magog,  pictures  of,  50. 

Gondomar,  Count,  complains  of  a caricature,  96, 
97. 

Greeks,  art  among,  28. 

Griswold,  Eoger,  assaulted  by  Lyon,  312. 

H. 

Hamilton,  Alexander,  talked  well  on  finance,  124. 

Harpers  Weekly,  during  war,  326 ; pictures  from, 
318-332. 

Herculaneum,  how  discovered,  21. 

Hindoos,  the,  art  among,  36  ; their  domestic 
code,  1 75. 

Hogarth,  William,  his  career,  120,  133  ; carica- 
tures by,  134,  137,  138  ; his  five  days’  pere- 
grination, 137 ; anecdote  by,  138  ; his  bur- 
lesque dedication,  140  ; procures  act  of  Par- 
liament, 141 ; his  last  letter,  304. 

Holbein,  Hans,  caricatures  indulgences,  72,  73  ; 
illustrates  Erasmus  and  Brandt,  76  ; his  tri- 
umph of  riches,  81. 

Homer  upon  pigmies,  17. 

Horace,  quoted,  upon  slavery,  23;  upon  a miser, 
24  ; upon  the  Saturnalia,  25. 

Howard,  Cardinal,  personated.  111. 

Howells,  William  D.,  upon  San  Carlo,  42,  47. 

Hue,  M.,  quoted,  upon  the  Chinese,  191. 

Huguenots,  caricatures  by,  118. 

Humbert,  Aime,  his  work  upon  Japan,  198  ; a 
caricature  from,  206. 

Humpty  Dumpty,  antiquity  of,  23. 

I. 

Ipswich  noted  in  Puritan  period,  97. 

Isaac  the  Jew,  caricatured,  63. 

Italy,  caricature  in,  257. 

J. 

Jackson,  Andrew,  in  caricature,  320,  322. 

“ Jade  Chaplet,”  the,  a poem  from,  193. 

22 


Japan,  comic  art  in,  198,  206. 

Jefferson,  Thomas,  quoted,  upon  the  heredita- 
ry principle,  147 ; upon  Scott’s  novels,  184  ; 
upon  the  freedom  of  the  press,  218;  cari- 
catured, 313. 

Jerome,  St.,  his  portrait,  47. 

Jews,  the,  position  and  character  of,  in  Middle 
Ages,  62. 

Jupiter,  caricature  of,  29,  30. 

Juvenal,  quoted,  upon  slavery,  23 ; upon  the 
toilette,  24 ; upon  the  Greeks,  31 ; upon 
learned  women,  179. 

K. 

Kelt  rick,  J.,  quoted,  upon  Theban  remains,  33. 

Krishna,  in  Hindoo  theology,  36-38. 

L. 

Langlois,  E.  H.,  quoted,  upon  the  Death-crier, 
56. 

Laud,  Archbishop,  caricatured,  98,  100-102. 

Law,  John,  his  career,  120,  123-132. 

Leech,  John,  his  comic  pictures,  284-286;  his 

' portrait,  285. 

Leighton,  Dr.  Alexander,  persecuted,  98. 

Lent  and  Shrovetide,  tilt  of,  107,  108. 

Leo  X.,  pasquinade  upon,  258. 

Lincoln,  Abraham,  in  Punch,  290,  291. 

London,  its  antiquity,  22. 

Longfellow,  H.  W.,  quoted,  upon  Dance  of 
Death,  59. 

Louisiana,  scheme  for  settling,  125  ; old  map 
of,  126. 

Louis  Philippe,  his  reign,  216,  217  ; caricatured, 
218,  321. 

Louis  XIY.,  caricatured,  115,  116,  118;  his 
finances,  121. 

Louis  XV.,  his  education,  159  ; anecdote  of,  1 61. 

Louis  XVI.  caricatured,  166,  167. 

Louis  XVIII. , his  character  and  reign,  212,  213. 

Lucian,  quoted,  upon  Jupiter,  30. 

Luther,  Martin,  his  aversion  to  Jews,  63 ; carica- 
ture of,  64  ; upon  the  devil,  65  ; disliked  Eras- 
mus, 75;  used  caricature  in  the  Eeformation, 
76  ; his  marriage,  78  ; his  credulity,  93. 

Luxembourg,  Due  de,  anecdote  of,  116. 

Lyon,  Matthew,  his  assault  upon  Griswold,  312  ; 
fined  and  imprisoned,  313. 

M. 

Macaire,  Eobert,  burlesques  so  called,  221. 

Malcolm,  J.  P.,  quoted,  upon  grotesque  decora- 
tion, 44-46  ; picture  from,  90,  95,  196,  197. 

Marcelin,  M.,  dedicates  loose  pictures  to  his 
mother,  231. 

Marcus  Aurelius,  quoted,  upon  Christians,  26. 

Maria  Theresa  civil  to  Pompadour,  160. 


338 


INDEX. 


Marie  Antoinette  caricatured,  169,  170. 

Mary,  Queen,  her  prayer-book,  46,  53,  54. 

Masks  worn  by  ancient  actors,  22. 

Mather,  Cotton,  quoted,  upon  the  Franklins, 
301,  302. 

Mather,  Increase,  quoted,  upon  the  press,  302. 
Matrimony,  caricature  of,  173,  177 ; in  China, 
192. 

Melanchthon,  Philip,  upon  Luther’s  marriage, 
79. 

Menius,  Dr.,  anecdote  of,  63. 

Mercury  burlesqued,  29,  30. 

Merimee,  M.,  quoted,  on  the  devil,  53. 

Middle  Ages,  caricature  of,  40,  50. 

Midnight  masses,  gayety  of,  in  France,  61. 
Mingotti,  Signora,  caricature  of,  143. 

Mirabean,  Gabriel,  Comte  de,  caricature  of,  162. 
Mitford,  A.  W.,  quoted,  upon  Japanese  preach- 
ing, 198. 

Mokke,  Mosse,  caricatured,  63. 

Moor,  Major  Edward,  quoted,  upon  Hindoo  art, 
36. 

Morellet,  Abbe,  quoted,  upon  Franklin,  306. 
Morgan,  Matt,  a caricature  by,  299. 

Morris,  Robert,  caricatured,  309. 

N. 

Nareda,  in  Hindoo  mythology,  38. 

Nast,  Thomas,  portrait  of,  318 ; caricatures  by, 
319,  320,  328,  329  ; his  career,  326. 

Nilus,  St.,  quoted,  upon  grotesque  decoration, 
46. 

Nonius  Maximus  caricatured  at  Pompeii,  16. 
North,  Lord,  caricatured,  157 ; disapproves  pol- 
icy of  George  III.,  158. 

Norton,  Charles  Eliot,  quoted,  upon  art  in  Italy, 
260,  262. 

Norwich,  great  dragon  of,  51. 

Notables,  the,  caricatured,  161. 

Nucerians,  the,  their  contest  with  the  people  of 
Pompeii,  17. 

O. 

Oates,  Titns,  denounces  Popish  plot,  109. 

Old  masters,  Hogarth  upon,  138 ; burlesque  of, 
139. 

Olympiodorus,  St.  Nilus  to,  on  decoration,  46. 
Opimiiis  burlesqued  by  Horace,  24. 

Orange,  Prince  of,  anecdote  of,  116. 

Orleans,  Due  de.  Regent  of  France,  122. 

Osiris,  in  Egyptian  art,  33. 

Oudinot,  General,  caricatured,  260,  261.  * 

P. 

Paine,  Thomas,  caricatured  by  Gillray,  154 ; in 
a caricature,  297. 

Palladas,  his  epigram  upon  marriage,  177. 


Palmerston,  Lord,  in  Punchy  289,  290. 

Parrhasius,  anecdote  of,  28. 

Pasquino,  account  of,  257,  259. 

Pergamus,  unswept  hall  of,  28. 

Petre,  Father,  caricature  of,  109. 

Philipon,  Charles,  portrait  of,  218 ; his  Chari- 
vari, 220  ; his  trial,  220. 

Pigmies,  Pompeian  pictures  of,  15,  17-19  ; de- 
scribed by  Pliny,  17  ; uses  of,  18. 

Pike,  Luke  Owen,  a caricature  from,  63  ; quoted, 
upon  clerical  robbers,  69. 

Pirlone,  II  Don,  caricatures  from,  259-263. 

Pitt,  William,  antagonist  of  Napoleon,  158  ; cari- 
catured by  Isaac  Cruikshank,  274. 

Pius  VI.,  pasquinade  upon,  258. 

Pius  IX.  caricatured,  263. 

Pliny  the  Elder  describes  pigmies,  17;  upon 
Greek  art,  28. 

Pliny  the  Younger,  quoted,  upon  Christians,  26. 

Pocahontas,  anecdote  of,  175. 

Pole,  Cardinal,  caricatured,  86. 

“Politician  Outwitted,”  quoted,  307. 

Pompadour,  Madame  de,  anecdotes  of,  159- 
161. 

Pompeii,  chalk  caricatures  from,  15,  17 ; pigmy 
pugilists  from,  15  ; described,  16  ; its  amphi- 
theatre  closed,  17  ; how  discovered,  21. 

“Poor  Richard,”  the  comic  almanac  of  its  day, 
303. 

Pope,  Alexander,  speculates  in  shai-es,  128 ; in 
a caricature,  136  ; quoted,  upon  Walpole,  142; 
women,  184. 

Popish  plot,  terror  of,  109. 

Processions,  remarks  upon,  91  ; in  honor  of 
Virgin  Mary,  92 ; , upon  birthday  of  Queen 
Elizabeth,  110. 

Proverbs  satirizing  women,  185. 

Prynne,  Lawyer,  loses  his  ears,  99 ; his  tri- 
umphal return  to  London,  99. 

Pud,  a burlesque  from,  197. 

Punch,  antiquity  of  the  legend,  31 ; in  Calcutta, 
39  ; in  China,  191 ; at  Cairo,  264  ; origin  of, 
265. 

Punch,  284. 

Puritan  period,  caricatures  of,  90;  terror  of, 
93,  94,  98,  105,  106. 

Q. 

Quaker  meeting,  caricature  of,  116. 

Queen  of  James  II.,  caricature  of,  109. 

Quincampoix,  scenes  in  the  street  so  named, 
127,  129. 

R. 

Rabelais,  Francois,  his  influence,  85,  86. 

Randon,  M.,  his  caricatures,  227,  230. 

Rationalism,  caricature  of,  298. 


INDEX. 


339 


Reformation,  the,  caricatures  of,  76  ; abolished 
processions,  93. 

‘‘  Reynard  the  Fox,”  its  effect,  70. 

Rheims,  its  cathedral,  40. 

Richard  II.,  his  psalter,  45. 

Richter,  Ludwig,  caricature  by,  248. 
Rochefoucauld,  Due  de,  quoted,  upon  women, 
184. 

Roman  Catholic  Church,  remark  upon,  46. 
Rome,  actors  of,  22. 

Roundhead,  the  nickname,  retorted,  104. 

Rupert,  Prince,  caricature  of,  102. 

Russell,  Benjamin,  his  allegory,  310. 

Russell,  Earl,  quoted,  upon  George  III.,  157 ; 
upon  a caricature  of  himself,  284. 

S. 

Sacheverell,  Dr.,  caricatured,  116,  1 17. 

Sachs,  Hans,  his  picture  described,  78. 
Saint-Simon,  Due  de,  quoted,  upon  the  French 
Government,  125. 

Satan,  traditional  character  of,  51. 

Saturnalia,  the,  at  Rome,  24. 

Saxe-Weimar,  Duke  of,  quoted,  upon  American 
manners',  277. 

Scalp  Hoax,  the,  described,  305. 

Scott,  Sir  Walter,  Jefferson  upon  his  novels,  184. 
Secession  War,  caricatures  of,  324-326. 

Servetus,  Michael,  burned,  83,  84. 

Seymour,  Robert,  suggests  “Pickwick,”  280. 
Shakspeare,  William,  his  death,  95. 

Sheridan,  R.  B.,  in  Gillray’s  caricatures,  154; 
anecdote  of,  165. 

Sherman,  Roger,  upon  title  of  the  President, 
309. 

“Ship  of  Fools”  described  and  quoted,  60,  180. 
Shrovetide  and  Lent,  caricatures  of,  107,  108. 
Silenus,  the  legend  of,  23. 

Sleeping  Congregation,  the,  Hogarth’s  picture 
of,  134. 

Smart,  Rev.  Peter,  persecuted,  98. 

Smith,  William,  burlesqued,  316. 

Socrates  burlesqued  by  Aristophanes,  31. 

South  Sea  Scheme  described,  128 ; caricatures 
of,  135. 

Spain,  proverbs  of,  185  ; comic  art  in,  249. 
Spayne  and  Rome  defeated,  picture  of,  95. 

Stael,  Madame  de,  Napoleon  afraid  of,  208. 
Stent,  G.  C.,  quoted,  upon  the  Chinese,  192. 
Stone,  S.  J.,  caricature  by,  298. 

Story,  W.  W. , quoted,  upon  Pasquino,  258,  259. 
Strafford,  Earl  of,  caricatured,  99,  100. 
Strasburg,  its  cathedral,  41. 

T. 

Talleyrand,  Prince  de,  caricatures  of,  209,  211 ; 
quoted,  upon  Napoleon,  212;  caricatured,  268. 


Tammany  Ring,  spoliations  of,  328. 

Taylor,  W.  B.,  collects  war  envelopes,  324,  325. 

Temptation,  the,  picture  of,  55. 

Tench,  drum-maker,  his  fete,  106. 

Tenniel,  John,  his  pictures  in  Punch,  286,  289, 
290  ; portrait  of,  295. 

Terence,  quoted,  upon  women,  179. 

Tertullian,  quoted,  upon  Last  Judgment,  54. 

Thackeray,  W.  M. , his  caricature  of  Louis  XIV. , 
119;  quoted,  upon  Hogarth,  137  ; upon  Louis 
Philippe,  219,  220;  commends  Daumier,  223. 

Thebes,  antiquities  of,  33,  35. 

Titian  burlesques  the  Laocoon,  89. 

Tomes,  Robert,  quoted,  upon  Rheims  Cathedral, 
40. 

Training  Day,  burlesque  of,  308. 

Trnjiin  to  Pliny,  upon  the  Christians,  27. 

Trollope,  Mrs.,  her  burlesques  of  American 
women,  183,  186,  276,  277,  279 ; burlesqued, 
323. 

Tweed,  William,  caricatured,  319,  320,  328. 

Tyrolese,  the,  scandalize  their  priests,  69. 

V. 

Van  Buren,  John,  anecdote  of,  320. 

Van  Buren,  Martin,  in  caricature,  320,  322. 

Velocipede  IV.  See  Bonaparte,  Louis. 

Viollet-le-duc,  M.,  quoted,  upon  burlesque  deco- 
ration, 64. 

Virgil,  quoted,  upon  ^neas,  20. 

Virginia  Pausing,  caricature,  326. 

Vii-gin  Mary,  her  festival,  92. 

Voltaire,  quoted,  upon  Massacre  of  St.  Bartholo- 
mew, 94. 

W. 

Wade,  Mr.,  burlesque  of,  196, 197. 

Waldegrave,  Lord,  quoted,  upon  George  III., 
150,  157. 

Wales,  Prince  of,  caricatured,  299. 

Wales,  Princess  of,  quoted,  upon  George  III., 
148 ; caricatured,  152. 

Wall  Street,  scenes  in,  during  inflation,  121. 

Walpole,  Horace,  quoted,  upon  a caricature, 
144  ; upon  mother  of  George  III.,  148. 

Walpole,  Sir  Robert,  in  South  Sea  speculations, 
128;  bribes,  141,  142  ; caricatured,  144,  145; 
downfall,  145. 

Ward,  Samuel,  his  caricature,  96,  97. 

Washington,  George,  the  picture  of  his  crossing 
the  Delaware,  21 ; caricatured,  309. 

Weather-cock,  order  of  the,  214. 

Wilkes,  John,  Franklin  upon,  151. 

Wilkinson,  Sir  Gardner,  quoted,  upon  Egyptian 
remains,  34,  35. 

William  and  Mary,  caricatures  during  their 
reign,  115. 


340 


INDEX. 


William  IV.  caricatured  by  Doyle,  276. 
Williams,  S.  W.,  a Chinese  caricature  from,  191. 
Willis,  N.  P.,  his  interview  with  Dickens,  282. 
Winchester,  its  cathedral,  43. 

Wine  among  the  Egyptians,  33,  34  ; among  the 
monks,  68. 

Women  and  matrimony,  caricatures  of,  171-190. 
Worms,  altar-piece  at,  49, 


Wright,  Thomas,  gives  caricature  of  Irish 
rior,  61 ; quoted,  70. 

X. 

Xenophon,  quoted,  upon  marriage,  177. 

Z. 

Zeuxis,  anecdote  of,  28. 


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with  a View  of  the  Primary  Causes  and  Move- 
ments of  “ The  Thirty  Years’  War.”  By  John 
Lothrop  Motley,  LL.D.,  D.C.L.  Illus- 
trated. In  2 vols..  8vo,  Cloth,  $7  00;  Sheep, 
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2 


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of  Charles  Lamb.  Comprising  his  Letters, 
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speare,  Hogarth,  &c.,  and  a Sketch  of  his 
Life,  with  the  Final  Memorials,  by  T.  Noon 
Talfourd.  With  Portrait.  2 vols.,  12rno, 
Cloth,  $3  00  ; Half  Calf,  $6  50. 

LAWRENCE’S  HISTORICAL  STUDIES. 
Historical  Studies.  By  Eugenk  Lawrence. 
Containing  the  following  Essays : The  Bish- 
ops of  Rome. — Leo  and  Luther. — Loyola  and 
the  Jesuits. — Ecumenical  Councils. — The 
Vaudois. — The  Huguenots. — The  Church  of 
Jerusalem. — Dominic  and  the  Inquisition. — 
The  Conquest  of  Ireland. — The  Greek  Church. 
8vo,  Cloth,  uncut  edges  and  gilt  tops,  $S  00. 

MYERS’S  REMAINS  OF  LOST  EMPIRES. 
Remains  of  Lost  Empires  : Sketches  of  the 
Ruins  of  Palmyra,  Nineveh,  Bsibylon,  and 
Persepolis,  with  some  Notes  on  India  and  the 
Cashnierian  Himalayas.  By  P.  V.  N.  Myers. 
Illustrated.  8vo,  Cloth,  $3  50. 

LOSSING’S  FIELD-BOOK  OF  THE  REV- 
OLUTION. Pictorial  Field-Book  of  the  Rev- 
olution ; or.  Illustrations  by  Pen  and  Pencil 
of  the  History,  Biography,  Scenery,  Relics, 
and  Traditions  of  the  War  for  Independence. 
By  Benson  J.  Lossing.  2 vols.,  8vo,  Cloth, 
^14  00;  Sheep  or  Roan,  $15  00;  Half  Calf, 
$18  00. 

LOSSING’S  FIELD-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR 
OF  1812.  Pictorial  Field-Book  of  the  War 
of  1812  : or,  Illustrations  by  Pen  and  Pencil 
of  the  History,  Biography,  Scenery,  Relics, 
and  Traditions  of  the  last  War  for  American 
Independence.  By  Benson  J.  Lossing. 
With  several  hundred  Engravings  on  Wood 
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MACAULAY’S  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND. 
The  History  of  England  from  the  Accession 
of  James  II.  By  Thomas  Babington  Ma- 
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MACAULAY’S  LIFE  AND  LETTERS.  The 
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Nephew,  G.  Otto  Trevelyan,  M.P.  With 
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*GREEN’S  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  THE 
ENGLISH  PEOPLE.  A Short  History  of 
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Examiner  in  the  Scliool  of  Modern  History, 
Oxford.  With  Tables  and  Colored  Maps. 
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Early  Life  of  Jonathan  Swift  (1667-1711). 
Bv  John  Forster.  With  Portrait.  8vo, 
Cloth,  $2  50. 

HALLAM’S  MIDDLE  AGES.  View  of  the 
State  of  Europe  during  the  Middle  Ages.  By 
Henry  Hallam.  8vo,  Cloth,  $2  00;  Sheep, 
$2  50 ; Half  Calf,  $4  25. 

IIALLAM’S  CONSTITUTIONAL  HISTORY 
OF  ENGLAND.  The  Constitutional  History 
of  England,  from  the  Accession  of  Henry 
VII.  to  the  Death  of  George  II.  By  Henry' 
Hallam.  8vo,  Cloth,  $2  00;  Sheep,  $2  50; 
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HALLAM’S  LITERATURE.  Introduction  to 
the  Literature  of  Europe  during  the  Fifteenth, 
Sixteenth,  and  Seventeenth  Centuries.  By 
Henry  Hallam.  2 vols.,  8vo,  Cloth, 
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SCHWEINFURTH’S  HEART  OF  AFRICA. 
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and  Adventures  in  the  Unexplored  Regions 
of  the  Centre  of  Africa.  From  1868  to  1871. 
By  Dr.  Georg  Schweinfurth.  Translated 
by  Ellen  E.  Frewer.  With  an  Introduc- 
tion by  Win  WOOD  Reade.  Illustrated  by 
about  130  Woodcuts  from  Drawings  made  by 
the  Author,  and  with  two  Maps.  2 vols., 
8vo,  Cloth,  $8  00. 

M‘CLlNTOCK  & STRONG’S  CYCLOPAE- 
DIA. Cyclopiedia  of  Biblical,  Theological, 
and  Ecclesiastical  Literature.  Prepared  by 
the  Rev.  John  M‘Clintock,  D.D.,  and  Jas. 
Strong,  S.T.D.  7 vols.  now  ready.  Royal 
8vo.  Price  per  vol..  Cloth,  $5  00;  Sheep, 
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MOHAMMED  AND  MOHAMMEDANISM  : 
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of  Great  Britain  in  February  and  March,  1874. 
By  R.  Bosworth  Smith,  M.A.,  Assistant 
Master  in  Harrow  School ; late  Fellow  of 
Trinity  College,  Oxford.  With  an  Appendix 
containing  Emanuel  Deutsch’s  Article  on  “Is- 
lam.” 12mo,  Cloth,  $1  50. 

MOSHEIM’S  ECCLESIASTICAL  H ISTORY, 
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Progress,  and  Variation  of  Church  Power  are 
considered  in  their  Connection  with  the  State 
of  Learning  and  Philosophy,  and  the  Political 
History  of  Europe  during  that  Peilod.  Trans- 
lated, with  Notes,  &c.,  by  A.  Maclaine,  D.D. 
Continued  to  1826,  by  C.  Coote,  LL.D.  2 
vols.,  8vo,  Cloth,  $4  00;  Sheep,  $5  00;  Half 
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STRICKLAND’S  (Miss)  QUEENS  OF  SCOT- 
LAND. Lives  of  the  Queens  of  Scotland  and 
English  Princesses  connected  with  the  Regal 
Succession  of  Great  Britain.  By  Agnes 
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3 


HAKPER’S  NEW  CLASSICAL  LIBRARY. 
Literal  Translations. 

The  following  Volumes  are  now  ready.  12mo, 
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C^SAR. — V iRGiL.  — Sallust.  — Horace.  — 
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&c. — Cicero  on  Oratory  and  Orators. 
— Cicero’s  Tusculan  Disputations,  On 
THE  Commonwealth,  On  the  Nature  of 
the  Gods. — Tacitus  (2  vols.). — Terence. 
— Sophocles. — Juvenal. — Xenophon. — 
Homer’s  Iliad.  — Homer’s  Odyssey.  — 
Herodotus.  — Demosthenes  (2  vols.). — 
Thucydides.  — ^Eschylus.  — Euripides 
(2  vols.). — Livy  (2  vols.). — Plato  [Select 
Dialogues]. 

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NORDHOFF’S  CALIFORNIA.  California: 
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NORDHOFF’S  NORTHERN  CALIFORNIA, 
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ANDS. Northern  California,  Oregon,  and  the 
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*RAWLINSON’S  MANUAL  OF  ANCIENT 
HISJ’ORY.  A Manual  of  Ancient  History, 
from  the  Earliest  Times  to  the  Fall  of  the 
Western  Empire.  Comprising  the  History 
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ia, Phoenicia,  Syria,  Jndtea,  Egypt,  Carthage, 
Persia,  Greece,  Macedonia,  Parthia,  and  Rome. 
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BAKER’S  ISMAILI A.  Ismaili'a:  a Narrative 
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BOSWELL’S  JOHNSON.  The  Life  of  Sam- 
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VINCENT’S  LAND  OF  THE  WHITE  ELE- 
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Personal  Nari'ative  of  Travel  and  Adventure 
in.  Farther  India,  embracing  the  Countries  of 
Burma,  Siam,  Cambodia,  and  Cochin-China 
(1871-2).  By  Frank  Vincent,  Jr.  Illus- 
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4- 


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NICHOLS’S  ART  EDUCATION.  Art  Edu- 
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March.”  Illustrated.  8vo,  Cloth,  $4  00. 

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land. By  Samuel  Smiles.  With  an  Ap- 
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SMILES’S  HUGUENOTS  AFTER  THE 
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with  a Visit  to  the  Country  of  the  Vaudois. 
By  Samuel  Smiles.  Crown  8vo,  Cloth, 
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SQUIER’S  PERU.  Peru  : Incidents  of  Travel 
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U.  S.  Commissioner  to  Peru,  Author  of  “ Nic- 
aragua,” “Ancient  Monuments  of  Mississippi 
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THE  “CHALLENGER”  EXPEDITION. 
The  Atlantic  : an  Account  of  the  General  Re- 
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“Challenger.”  By  Sir  Wyville  Thomson, 
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Portrait  of  the  Author,  engraved  by  C.  H. 
Jeens.  2 vols.,  8vo.  (In  Press.) 

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tion of  the  Bourbons  in  1815.  [In  addition 
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rect the  errors  of  the  original  work  concern- 
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dex has  been  appended  to  this  American  Edi- 
tion.] Second  Series  : From  the  Fall  of  Na- 
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Surface.  By  Alfred  Russel  Wallace. 
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GIBBON’S  ROME.  The  History  of  the  De- 
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Edward  Gibbon.  With  Notes  by  Rev.  IL 
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1872  A.D.  Book  II.  Personal  Experiences, 
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Comprising  Characteristic  Selections  from  the 
Works  of  the  more  Noteworthy  Scottish  Poets, 
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Greece. — Classical  Dictionary.  Price 
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